


The Cat's Journal

by wolfie180g



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adoption, Amnesia, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Animal Traits, Animal Transformation, Body Horror, Body Modification, Cat, Completed, Crack, Dogs, Eagles, Feline, Gen, Heaven, Hunted, Hurt/Comfort, Illustrations, Intelligent Animals, Monster - Freeform, Mystery, Near Death Experience, Original Story - Freeform, POV Multiple, Pictures, Science Fiction, Shapeshifter, Talking Animals, Teenagers, Weird events, artwork, chimera, feline shapeshifter, secret city - Freeform, serval - Freeform, sevannahs, shape shifter, smart animals, temporary amputation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-06 17:09:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 275,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11040582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfie180g/pseuds/wolfie180g
Summary: Edward Johnson shape shifts into a large striped cat, but that is the least of his problems. He was found lying half dead in the street with no memory of his past. It flashes before him only in dreams but is too confusing and painful to bear. Edward struggles for 3 years to discover who he really is while living with his adoptive family. Jack his brother, Henry his Dad, and Janet who had saved him from the street. When suspicious looking men appear in the peaceful town, looking for Edward, the 2 brothers know that to be found would be fatal. A long perilous journey begins, and will only end if he is willing to accept who he is and was, and finds the courage to save his family. He is not alone however, others are also on the desolate desert roads, traveling towards certain oblivion with the slim hope that not all is lost. Some will hunt him, others will give everything to save him, all will be changed forever.





	1. Trouble At School

**Author's Note:**

> This story has Multiple points of view and flashbacks and Journal entries - it's actually pretty easy to follow.
> 
> Journal entries or time jumps are marked like this:  
> Present story  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> Journal entry pertaining to event in Ed's view  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> Present story again

 

**The Cat's Journal**

  
**Chapter 1:**

**Trouble at school**

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 18th 2010

11:45am Tuesday

Today the weather is nice, about 68 degrees, very cloudy outside but it doesn't feel oppressive. Dan is packed with my green t-shirt and cargo jeans and Jack wore his 'I'm with the band' shirt, with the picture of an accordion and lefty guitar, that he just got the other day. He insisted on wearing the plethora pocket shorts again as well. Dad says his clothes are even baggier then mine. Jack and I were late again for class but I think he knows I don't mean to be, it's just, some things I can't help when I'm like this. Mom had to drive us to school because Dad will be at the site all day today. Gotta go, lunch is almost over and I have to get this transcriber back into Dan the man's pack. Talk to ya later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The lunchroom started to clear out as Jack helped Edward get the voice recording transcriber back into the dog's pack. Several children chatted behind them about what they were doing after classes, and others were busy getting their lunch trays returned to the cafeteria window.

"Hey don't forget, we've got that exam later in 4th period." Jack told one of his friends who passed behind them.

"Right, can I borrow your notes? I can give them back after study hall." A conjoined twin asked as his sibling obliviously rocked out on a loud mp3 player.

"Yeah, just make sure to do that 'cause it's an open book and I took notes so I wouldn't have to remember it all." Jack said shifting around on the bench seat, allowing Ed plenty of room to lay down.

Ed looked up at Jack, and from this new angle he noticed that his older brother always looks as though he would, at any moment and without provocation, play Frisbee at you. It's especially distracting when he's trying to make a point or get an idea across. His wide arm gestures and dodgy glances at something imaginary behind his 'victims', invariably makes one paranoid until he would stop talking and smile genially as he awaited the response.

Edward said he would never do that to people, but being with Jack all the time had made him pick up other habits. Ed would usually look at you as if you had a nearly finished game of chess on your face, and he was going for the checkmate. The two were odd but considered harmless by their colleagues and were not much more interesting then any other student who went to this particular school.

Despite the fact that Edward is currently a large, black and gray striped, _cat._

Jack leaned over and tousled Ed's furry head and pulled on his pointed ears, "Hurry up so we can get to class on time for once. Hear me, Bro?"

"Alright, alright. Can you get Dan up? He fell asleep again. Some watchdog he is." Edward said as he flicked his tail at the mutt. The dog 'murfed' at him and rolled over.

"There's nothing to watch, Ed, nothing ever happens here." Jack said as he stood up from the bench. He towered over most of the students but habitually stooped so he wouldn't seem so imposing. It was always unclear how tall Jack was, but the usual consensus is that he is 5 ft 9 with fair build, not a weightlifter by any means, but naturally strong. Edward, at the moment, is 17 inches tall, toes to ears. When he is not a large cat and shape-shifts into a fairly normal looking human kid, he is usually 4 ft 11. It varies time to time, depending on if he had a full meal before shifting his shape. Needless to say, he is a scrawny, stretched out looking teen at best. However he is far from 'starving' thin because of his very impressive muscle tone. The nickname Gollum was coughed here and there around their house in playful jest.

Ed's dog, laying under the cafeteria table, is a largish Australian Shepherd /Husky mutt and his name is 'Dan the man' as a joke because it is Edward the cat who is the only shape-shifter in the family. Dan was originally trained to aide blind people, but was adopted to assist Edward in day to day chores when he turns feline. The dog also carries Edward's clothes, books, and miscellaneous things that he would need for the day in a pack strapped comfortably around his back. At the moment, Dan is snoring loudly beneath the bench that Edward is perched on.

"Come on Ed, we've got to get to class." Jack noticed more students get their things together.

Edward stretched out to wake up his limbs and stood on top of the bench and managed to dodge his older brother's wilder Frisbee gestures while he talked with his lab partner about the exam notes. Some other students in wheelchairs went around the tables and headed towards the exit, allowing themselves plenty of time to get to the elevators for classes on the top floor. Edward's heart nearly skipped a beat when he noticed his very lovely girl/friend following the crowd. She was busy putting her hair up into a pony tail as she walked with such wonderful grace that made Ed happy to be alive. Her natural tomboy self was always prevalent, so these flitting glances of her girly-ness were a welcomed sight.

"Hey Jen! See you up there!" Ed called out, she waved at them, then waved for them to hurry up.

"Dan, this is your wake up call. Up up up." Edward quickly cajoled his dog as the last of the kids were already outside headed back to the school in the separate 6 story building. The 2 main buildings of the school sit adjacent to each other and share the same small playground area. The building the lunchroom is in, doubles as the town's largest meeting hall and city offices for the leaders on the other side of the cafeteria.

Jack fiddled with his cell phone for a minute and suddenly noticed that Edward seemed to be in pain. He frowned as he looked down at his adopted little brother, curled up on the bench. He knew what was coming, and opened up Dan's pack for the spare cloths. They are very familiar with the signals that come before the transformation.

Edward can't choose or predict when it will happen, so that is why the dog follows him around with his clothes. Both of the boys are very grateful that everyone else had left the lunchroom. To other people, Edward's shape-shifting is nothing new, and the brothers are often late to class because of it, and it's alright. Most of the people that go to this interesting school have their own unique quirks. In fact, the whole secluded town was built for people that, like Edward, needed a safe refuge from the world's prying eyes. Though admittedly, no one even comes close to Edward's level of uniqueness.

A great majority of the residents are little people and their families, while other families have members that have other physical deformities that don't handicap their minds, or keep them from leading a normal life. What brought most of them to this town is the feeling of belonging that they might not have found in the rest of the country. To have a shape-shifter going to class wasn't that big of a stretch for them, and some were secretly glad to hear that there are other people that have bigger challenges, but are still able to get on with their lives and be happy.

Edward would never say it, but all he ever wanted was to be just like everyone else, to be human for more then just half of the time. He was now very grateful that he could spend the rest of the day as a human, joining in the baseball game later that night in the park. He just had to get through this painful transformation first.

Ed winced and jumped off of the bench. Curling up a bit he looked plaintively up at Jack then back down again panting and groaning as quietly as he could, trying his best to control it, and expedite it. After a minute the tardy bell rang. Jack looked at his watch then back at the felinus Edward.

"The bells are ringing and were going to be really late, hurry up and change already!" Jack said holding up Ed's shirt to block him from the windows.

"Something's... wrong... it's not... unngh..." he grunted, frustrated.

Dan whimpered and laid down next to Edward, nuzzling his side. Jack paced back and forth and knew that it shouldn't take nearly this long. After a few more minutes, Ed slowly sat back on his haunches and flicked his tail. 'No baseball playing for me tonight.' He thought to himself. He gave a disappointed sigh and looked up at his brother.

"Was that it? Nothing happened, you're still a cat..." Jack said shrugging.

"Yeah... that was really weird..." Ed said quietly, wondering what happened himself. He leaned to one side so he could see the front doors past Jack's legs.

"Sooooo let's get to class." Jack made a toss motion at the door, making Edward laugh as he imagined the invisible Frisbee hitting a window.

The three gathered their things and quickly crossed the parking lot from the lunchroom and passed by the remains of the school's storage shed. Yesterday, Ed had accidentally crashed through the roof of that old shed, causing its complete obliteration. Edward gave a sheepish grin at it as they walked passed, and remembered the journal entry he made on it, laughing as he wrote.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 17th 2010

9:45 pm Monday

Today the weather was cool but some clouds hung around. I was wearing my gray jacket I stole from Dad, it is way too big but I like it, it's frumpy and warm. Jack wore shorts, I don't understand why he insists on showing off his legs. Breakfast was a can of salmon and some olives, I need to remind Mom to get more of the green olives.

Classes started as usual but I noticed something strange right after we got off the bus and had to check it out. Jack said I was nuts, but he saw it too, I think it was... a cloud. A small gray cloud that kinda looked like fog, and it moved wildly back and forth between me and the old shed next to the school. It's hard to describe it really, but there it was, a freaky 5 ft. long, thick gray cloud moving around in the air like a flock of drunk hummingbirds.

I can't really describe the sensation I felt as I watched it move. It was like it was calling me. I thought I might actually catch the darn thing so I started to run towards it. It hovered at times within reach, and then voom! It would shoot off around in a wide arch and then move closer in again, bobbing and weaving in the air. Then it started to move slowly up the side of the school as if it was taunting me. I saw an emergency fire ladder hanging off the side of the building that looked rusted, but I can be a pretty limber cat if I do say so!

So I jumped up onto the first rung, it held ok, so I made my way up the side of the building, and that darn cloud was always just beyond my grasp. It's not easy for me to climb ladders with 4 legs and no thumbs but I managed to make it. I got to the top of the ladder then reached for it but I lost my footing and slipped, but luckily caught the eaves trough hanging off of the roof. I grabbed a good strong hold of the rotting eaves trough with both arms when, surprise surprise, I start to transform!

Of all the places I've been today it had to be right then and there! Jack says he saw something real strange about a second after I caught myself.

I lost sight of it, but Jack says that the cloud went all around me then disappeared. He tried describing it, and I think he was trying to say it went _inside_ me. I think he's nuts. Maybe, like some dust fell in his eye from the ladder shifting. I dunno. All I know is that I began to feel the shift's muscle cramps and I started getting heavier. The eaves started to creak and rattle and I knew it couldn't hold up my new human body much longer but I had nothing else to hold on to! So finally, the eaves trough's supports started to creak and crumble and with a deafening noise the whole length of it on the side of the school fell off the roof - _with me on it_! I kind of wish that Jack had a camcorder 'cause that would have been hilarious! My falling nekid butt on the news!

I was somehow able to right myself as I fell, with my hands and feet below me, and I crashed right through the roof of that old shed next to the school dumpster. It hurt hitting the shed, but I'm just glad it wasn't the dumpster, that would have been gross as hell. One of the strange parts of this little event, is that the shed was already occupied, with huge brown eagles. _Eagles_ , I know right? And they could not have cared less that I just crashed right through their nest.

I looked at them, and they quickly looked away from me. A few seconds passed and I waited for them to attack. My instincts reminded me that eagles can easily carry away and kill cats, and since I had only just shifted, I was still in that prey frame of mind. I already had my defenses up but they didn't do anything. It was only a few seconds, but it became obvious that they didn't care that I was there. Seeing as how they were only mildly annoyed by my intrusion, I figured I might as well leave 'em alone! I could hear Jack and Dan digging out a little path to get in. Dan got to me first and then turned around really quick and stared oddly at the 2 dark brown eagles. He growled and barked and they finally flew away. It was really unnerving to see those wild birds act like that. I've never seen anything like them. So nonchalant about destructive, falling, buck-naked people. Maybe they're from New York City.

Ok that's a bit excessive. But there was something familiar about them at the same time. I can’t quite put my finger on it, it's like from a dream, or something...

Anyways, after they flew off, I got my clothes on and apparently the crash was heard throughout most of the school because the teachers had a hard time keeping everyone inside. Jack and I were ushered into the principal's office where our school nurse, Ms. Corrie was waiting. She fussed over us until it was obvious that my cunning skills and quick reflexes saved my life. I guess I'm pretty limber as a human too 'cause Jack said he never saw a person flip around in midair like that, to land hands and feet first. I probably would have landed without a scratch if that shed wasn't there. But I’m not gonna try it again to find out!

Principal Flansburgh called Mom and Dad in to discuss the incident. Some teachers wanted to suspend us for being reckless and for the damages, but Mom and Dad argued with them and said that the school should have dismantled the old shed years ago, and that the eaves could have fallen off anyways because they were so old. The school didn't have enough money to take it down before, so the neglect on the school's part made it impossible for them to reprimand us too harshly for the totaled shed. Principal Flansburgh heard Jack's testimony before Mom and Dad got there, and he decided later to let me off the hook for my curiosity. I didn't like the cat pun, but kept quiet about it. I was lucky I wasn't hurt much because if it was any other student falling off of the 6 story roof, they would have surely died. But because it was me, my reflexes and light weight were what saved my life. And hey, I helped out the school by pre-demolishing the shed, free of charge!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today the shed's remains were mostly removed and only one wall and the floor were left. The weird unidentifiable brown eagles weren’t seen by anyone else but Ed and Jack and the dog.

Jack and Edward walked quickly past the roped off deconstruction site but didn’t feel the need to talk about what occurred yesterday. Stranger things have happened in their lives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ed has lived with Jack's family since May 21st 2007\. He was discovered in the middle of the street in front of Jack's Aunt Ana's house. The black and gray striped cat laid battered in the street for several hours before he was seen by Jack's mother. Janet was visiting her sister-in-law that day to catch up with the family when she happened to look outside at the same moment Edward used the last bit of strength to lift his head. He was trying to get the attention of a passing car, but luckily caught her eye instead. She nearly had a heart attack when the car narrowly missed him. She desperately wanted to get this poor half-dead cat out of the road before he was run over. Waving for traffic to go around, she sprinted over with a towel. She gently wrapped him up in it, and picked him up carefully. His head rolled over to look up at her. His eyes were glazed and he was very weak but she could swear the cat was trying to smile at her.

Edward was bleeding from several places so Janet immediately started to treat him as best she could. Being a former school nurse, she thankfully remembered some basic medical treatment. Her sister-in-law helped out as best she could, however, Janet decided it would be easier to treat him at her own house for the long run. It was apparent that the sight of blood was making her sister-in-law very squeamish. Ana wished her luck and said not to bother taking him to the animal shelter, they'd likely put him to sleep then waste money on surgery. Their local shelter's main concern is to place healthy animals in homes, rather then save obviously lost causes. He needed constant care, treatment and attention, and if he didn't get it, putting him down would have been the humane thing to. Often Janet recalled that day and thought it was amazing that in his condition, he had lived. Even she thought that he wouldn't make it through the night, but couldn't bring herself to have him put to sleep. If he was willing to fight to live, she would help him.

The cat was in a daze and muttered a lot. Half of the time, he was unconscious, passing out while trying to move and get up. Janet bandaged up his leg and around his rib cage, and every slight prod made him wince. After a day he calmed down and stopped trying to stand up and walk around. Janet made him a nice makeshift bed of heated blankets and some towels as a mini-mattress, tucking the blankets into the bed's sides to keep him still so his bones could heal faster. In his sleep, all Janet heard most of the day were the cat's mutterings, random noises, and hurt groans. Janet said he 'talked' so much that he should be named for the famous talking horse, Mr. Ed.

The name stuck but Ed quieted down in the following days.

Even early on, Ed’s curious ways and strangely expressive eyes made Janet fall in love with the cat right away. From the initial sight of him, she assumed that somebody hit Ed with their car or maybe someone threw him out of a moving vehicle. Janet figured that even if some animals willingly jump out of trucks and open topped vehicles, they would not be as injured as Ed was that day because they would expect to land on their feet. Ed did not land on his feet.

The next week, Jack came home after a long fishing campout up north with his Dad, Henry, and both of them saw that they suddenly had a new pet. Jack was thrilled because of all the animals he brought home, hoping to keep as pets, it took his mom to see an even more pathetic critter herself for them to keep one. Henry grinned and hugged his wife, he too was secretly feeling like there was someone missing from their home.

A few weeks passed, then a month. Ed’s wounds were starting to heal and he would become conscious for more then just 10 minutes at a time. He would mutter a lot to himself, usually looking out of the window. Mostly out of shyness, he was very quiet to the family that took him in.

Gradually, he started to listen to the family talking and interacting, all the while learning how to fit in. When everyone else was sleeping he would limp around the house, and pretend talk to the coats hanging off of the chairs in the kitchen. Practicing how to properly address these very tall beings.

Trying to gain some height by standing on his hind legs hurt so he abandoned that position. His bandages and cast caused him to teeter way too much, and he couldn't keep it up for very long anyhow. He began to think of how they talked to him. They didn't care if he was laying down, sitting or standing. So he realized that it didn't matter how he addressed them, but it must be polite.

He was still young, and his views and likes were simple. One thing, was that he liked listening to the people breath when they slept. Sometimes curling up at the foot of the bed so he wouldn't wake them. Their slow metronome-like breathing helped him get to sleep some nights as he found it very hypnotic and soothing. In the morning he would be greeted with a 'hello', and taken back to his own bed to recuperate without risk of being accidentally kicked or stepped on.

Ed knew that he was different but he didn’t _feel_ any different then these people. He practiced nearly every night for a few weeks talking to the coats and clothes on the floor. He pretended the pile of clothes were Jack as he was forever laying in front of the TV. Edward became comfortable with the sights and sounds of the house, and felt at home. Even though he lost his memory from his life before the accident, this is the first time he felt loved. Somehow he sensed that he was never really loved before, and this new wonderful feeling warmed him to his soul.

He plucked up the courage and was determined to talk to them. It was the only appropriate and respectful thing to do. 'Tomorrow,' he thought, 'is the day.' The decision made him happy and he blissfully fell asleep. Edward was convinced that a formal and gentle word of appreciation would be the perfect thing to say first to the family. The furthest thing from his mind was that he could upset anyone, as long as he was sincere. So when he said a very enthusiastic "Thank you!" when he was offered his food dish, he was understandably surprised by their response.

Before August 17th, 2007, 3 months after his near death on the street, he never knew quite what to say to them. It was such a daunting challenge to think of what to say first to the family that saved his life and took him in.

Being perpetually inside, Edward had never seen or heard any other animal around within earshot, let alone, another cat. He didn’t realize that cats were _not supposed_ to be able to talk. He sat there very proud and still, with the food settling down in his dish. He showed off a nice, polite toothy grin at the 3 faces that stared at him with their jaws dropped. A fork fell loudly off of the dinner table, and no one noticed. He knew immediately that he'd done something terribly wrong but he didn’t know what it was or what to do about it.

He assumed that it was rude that he didn’t say 'Thank you' loud enough so he timidly cleared his throat and said hesitantly louder, "Thank you... for the food." With a gracious, and more then a little nervous, smile. He nodded in the direction of his dish and looked back up at them with an even smaller more timid smile. Shifting his gaze from one to another, waiting for some sort of response.

Jack, Janet and Henry all stared at him for what seemed like forever.

Edward's grin faded then he laid down and felt terribly embarrassed and ashamed, but didn’t know why. He wanted to slink off and hide somewhere.

Jack was the first to reply, "You’re… welcome….." and shrugged non-committaly. Jack then looked at his parents who were at a loss for what to do or say. There was no plan of action for how one should behave when your house pet suddenly says 'thank you' one night. All they could figure on doing is to look at each other for some hint of a sane reaction. Coming up with the plan to simply stare at each other and then at the cat, seemed to work. After a few seconds they all gave a slight grin and nodded at Edward and waited to see if he would do something else unexpected.

Edward was simply very happy at the acknowledgment and smiled wide as he sat up straight again. Almost giddily, he nodded back at each of them in turn and started to eat.

The rest of the family watched him gladly devour the cheap canned cat food and then stared at each other some more, making minutely small hand gestures out of Ed's line of sight in lieu of speech. After 2 solid minutes, one by one, they started to eat too but were watching Ed after every bite. Not with fear, more like quizzical fascination.

Edward didn't notice their silent discussion at all and was in his own happy little world. Jack eased up on his grip of his spoon and carefully set it down. Leaning way over in his chair, he watched Ed eat the cheap food for a minute and then got up, went over and knelt down next to him. Jack patted Ed on the head and gave him some cut up pieces of meat for him to eat from his own plate instead of the cat food.

Ed's grin doubled and he said, "Thanks!" and gratefully munched on the meat.

Jack felt something good was gonna happen in their lives. He sat back down in his chair and looked back at his parents. He shrugged and smiled at them. "It's okay."

"Okay?" His mom asked silently for reassurance, wondering if it was a mistake to have brought home this potentially dangerous thing. He seemed harmless enough... but they really didn't know where he came from, and now that he could talk, they weren't sure if they wanted to hear it from his mouth. He was different (an understatement) and the uncertainty if that was a good thing or not was hanging in the air.

Henry saw her internal debate and held her hand, saying, "Okay" gently to her and Jack. He whispered very quietly to her so the others would not hear, "Whatever it was, whoever he was, wherever he came from, is not important. Ed is a part of our family now."

They had rescued him, and were now responsible for him. Henry squeezed her hand and patted Jack's back. He then dished out another hardy portion of mashed potatoes on his plate and made a mini mountain plateau out of it with vertical lines along the side with his fork. Saying with convincing sincerity, "Now, _this,_ is important." and laughed into his dinner plate. They all relaxed their ridged grip on 'reality' and fit this extraordinary cat into it.

It would be a long time before Edward would see that the rest of the world was not quite so accepting of him for his very existence. That is why they decided to move to a hidden 'Eden' of a town in the Montana mountain ranges.

Amystriss has proven to be the most blessed home town for all of its unique inhabitants. But it comes at a cost of keeping it an absolute secret from the rest of the world. A secret place where there were no judgments of character based on a person's appearance, and where young unique people could grow and live in a safe community. But in all other respects, it is just another town, with a thriving economy, a main drag full of stores, and a school with some students late for class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack, Ed and Dan the man walked hurriedly back to school. The closer entrance to the school was now barricaded off with the shed's remains. The school now allowed all students an extra 3 minutes to get to class so Jack knew they had little time yet. As they neared the front entrance to the school, a large black car pulled up behind the school bus and parked on the street. Nobody got out. Ed glanced over and sensed its presence. It felt out of place to him, wrong, like an insult to peace.

He followed Jack closely and flicked his tail in agitation as Jack shut the front entrance door behind the cat and dog. Edward stayed quiet the whole time they were outside and Jack noticed it.

"What’s the matter, Ed?" he asked walking next to him through the lobby.

"I don’t know, but there’s something familiar about that car, I can't really place it, but it feels… like it shouldn't be here, it's not right for it to be here."

Jack started up the stairs and noticed Ed falling behind. He stopped and turned around. "It's probably something you saw on TV, c'mon, let's get going. Do you need help up the stairs?" Jack said as he went back down the stairs to Edward.

"Yeah... on the rail would be good." Edward said looking up at Jack.

Jack picked Ed up and set him on the 8 inch wide rail that runs unhindered all the way up to the top floor. It is easier for him to get upstairs this way rather then hoping up the many stairs one by one. Dan the man didn’t have any problem going up stairs because he was a good sized Husky mix and was used to going to the classes all over the school. Dan caught something that was 'off' in the air and sniffed around, searching, he looked back to the front door with curiosity.

Ed called down, "C'mon Dan, come!"

Dan reluctantly left the door with a low growl and followed Ed up the stairs. They caught up to Jack just as he headed off to his class on the 3rd floor.

"See ya later." Jack said with a quick wave.

"Bye, oh, we should get some burgers at Cowtown after school. I’m starving!"

"Ok. Take care, Ed."

Edward went up another flight and saw a man in an all black suit at the administrations office beyond the closed doors. He was startled when the entrance buzzer went off to let the man into the office down the hall. "Something’s not right, this guy looks... suspicious, who is he? He couldn't have come in and passed us if he was in that car out front... but, no, is he with them?" He debated under his breath. Dan stopped dead in his tracks and glared at the door, from his height he couldn’t see the man, but his presence was known, and Dan didn’t like it one bit.

"C'mon, we’ve got to get to class, come Dan!" Ed took another couple flights to the 6th floor and saw Dan down the other side. "Dan! Get over here! Now!" In a hushed but urgent call.

Dan cautiously went up to Ed and pushed the door open to the top floor. Ed jumped off of the rail and slid past the dog through the door. He and the dog practically tip toed down the long hallway to his classroom. He was late, more late then he’d been in awhile, and he couldn't even blame a shape-shift for it.

"What I would give for a back way into the classroom." He said up to the dog. Dan was glaring at the door they just went through, giving a low growl at it.

All the doors in the school are supposed to have a door stop so they are partially open all the time to help Ed get into rooms when he's in cat form. The elevators at each end of the school are reserved for people in wheelchairs or people that can't make it up the numerous flights of stairs.

Even though the school's main building is huge, the tallest in town, there are only about 14 rooms occupied at a time. So they spread the students out in the school to help the kids feel normal. The rest of the rooms serve various purposes for the town. Teachers and administrative offices, storage, and in case of emergencies they can be converted into living quarters if the town should face some kind of disaster, natural or other. It was built to last, and ironically built first, before the town had a clear grasp of its own size and populous, or rather, the lack thereof.

It was realized well after constructing the framework for the 6th floor that the town probably wouldn't need more then a 2 story school, but they went with it, and the school's height became the ingredient of jokes amongst the shorter kids. The kids didn't mind the long walk up the school's steps. It helped them feel connected to everyone outside of town, knowing that if they went to any other school they would have to trudge up similar tall flights of stairs. Most of the students are in 6th 7th and 8th grades but a recent population boom is responsible for the numerous students in kindergarten - 3rd grades. The 'high school' is at the top of the building on the 5th and 6th floors, but classes are held at various times because they use the same teachers for all the grades.

Ed’s history teacher has a daughter in the 2nd grade, so he has a working arrangement with the 2nd grade teachers to keep in near constant contact with his daughter's learning and well being. It was well known that even though Mr. John Randolph was a very stern and stoic teacher, he had a very kind heart for his daughter and had many pictures up on his desk, to which Ed now noticed. The door was ajar and Ed saw the familiar rows of huge student desks to the left and to the right, the head desk of Mr. Randolph who was writing something on the chalk board.

Mr. R, as he’s known by his students, knew that Ed was sneaking in and pretended not to notice. 'This poor kid has enough on his plate to be ostracized further.' He thought to himself as he continued to copy text onto the board.

The other students were now used to Ed, his oddness and frequent changes. But they were alike in that they were all ‘different’. So they shrugged it off and let him be. Ed was just happy to be learning something outside of the Johnson's personal library, which consisted of only a few dozen books. Many of which were dime store novels and 30 year old encyclopedias. He had spent most of his days on this Earth stuck inside the house, rereading those same books ad-nauseam.

Ed jumped up onto his seat at his desk and looked to his lovely friend sitting to his left to get the book to the right page. No words needed to be spoken as this ritual was done nearly a dozen times everyday. His girl friend Jen opened up the book and folded the pages down so the book wouldn’t close on him. Dan quietly perched himself next to the desk on the right side, giving a low and almost inaudible growl at the door. He reluctantly laid down once his master gave a word. Ed nodded at the dog and then sat on his seat and held the pages down with his front paws. His sight inevitably wandered to the door to the classroom.

Mr. R turned around and closed the book with an authoritative thump for attention. "James K. Polk was called the Napoleon of the stump, he was master at making speeches that inspired as well as..." As Mr. Randolph spoke he noticed that most of his students were now looking at the door. Firm, audible, booted steps were going door to door up the hallway and they were steadily getting louder and seemingly more menacing.

Ed panicked because he felt something horrible was about to happen, he jumped down off his desk and ran into Mr. Randolph's enclosed office at the back of the classroom. Dan hung his head and growled menacingly at the door, making overtures that he was thinking of attacking the intruder down the hall. But, he knew he needed to protect his master first and foremost, so he followed Edward to Mr. R's office.

The other students were now tense and on edge so Mr. R waved his hands for them to keep quiet. He knew that Ed must have a good reason to suddenly take off like that and the dog was always a sweetheart to everyone, no one had ever heard him growl before. Mr. Randolph strode over to the classroom door, removed the doorstop then firmly shut and locked it. He then asked one of the students to go to the board and write down the next paragraph in the book. "Pay attention to what Jessica is writing on the board, I will be back in a minute."

He strode towards his office in the back of the classroom and picked up Ed’s book on the way, giving it to Jen, thereby leaving no trace Ed had just sat there. He saw Ed crouched down behind his messy oak desk, breathing fitfully. Dan was lying down, facing the office door and permitted the teacher to get closer. Mr. R patted the dog's head as he knelt down to face Edward, "What’s going on." he said calmly.

"Those men, they are out there and their after me! I know it! Please help me!" He cried as quietly and urgently as possible. His voice high with anxiety.

"Who are they?"

"I don’t know, but they’re after me! They’re wrong, they're very bad, I... I... know they’re bad." Dan stood up and growled at the door and then turned back around and whined for orders. "Shhhh, Dan quiet down." Ed whispered. Dan laid down next to Ed, shielding him from the door.

"Ok ok, stay here, keep him quiet."

" _Please help._ I don’t know what to do. I can't… go." He motioned with his paw that the strange men were going to take him away.

Mr. Randolph stood up and walked around to his desk drawers and pulled out something with a gray handle and pocketed it into his inner jacket, not letting Ed see what it was. He patted the dog's head again and walked out of his office, leaving Edward there tucked behind the large desk.

Ed had a sudden feeling that those evil men were responsible for his pain filled glimpses of his past, the nightmares that he had hoped were imaginary, where white shadowy figures loomed ominously over him. He just knew they were malicious, uncaring and deadly, and _they had a plan for him_. He tried desperately to remember his past but most of it only comes to him in dreams and disappear just as quick as they materialize in his mind. Shapes and tall figures, and pain, he couldn’t describe much of it but he knew it was unbearably painful.

Jen walked into the office interrupting Ed's upsetting thoughts. "Mr. R asked for someone's help, so I offered to go downstairs to get his daughter. The story is, is that she’s doing show and tell today and you're her cat and that Dan is her assist dog. Then supposedly you ran off and Dan chased you up here where you smelled your owner Mr. Randolph." She sighed as if to say 'Who going to believe that.' Jen put a fist to her hip, "Ed, what’s going on? What’s really happening?"

"I don’t know exactly but I think those guys are after me, I think they’re bad... I can't describe it…" he tried not to sound as paranoid as before.

"Well I thought you aught to know that Mr. R is sticking his neck out for you and you have to play along. Be um… cat-ty, uh I dunno, start playing with some crap like a cat would. I’ve gotta go."

Ed looked around at what he could possibly play with when he noticed a stack of hall pass’s. "Here, you need a hall pass, oh 2 of them for you both. You should take the elevator both ways so you skip the middle floors. To blend in you need to look casual!" He said, wishing that it were someone else, _not her,_ going out of the classroom.

"Thanks, I almost forgot to look 'casual'. Don't worry about it, those guys are probably just here for business or something. You just calm down, alright?" She sighed loudly at him and leaned over to smack him on the butt as a distraction. Her heels clacked on the floor as she left the office, and Ed had a brief thought of her beating down her opponents with those sharp high heels like in some slick assassin movie. He admired her courage and spirit to confront any evil and cursed his own insecurities and downright cowardice for something that might turn out to be nothing at all. It made him respect her all the more.

"Please be careful." Ed said. He knew that the reason that their teacher agreed to have her run the errand is because she was easily one of the most intimidating kids there. Despite her 5 foot stature and slim size, she regularly takes on people bigger then her in the sports she's involved in, which are many, and rarely looses in a fight. Edward had a stray thought that that was one of the numerous reason's why he was into her. He liked strong, self confident women.

Jen waited for the man on their floor to make a noise in a room 2 doors down. He was apparently rummaging through some boxes in storage, so she took that opportunity to make her way to the elevator unnoticed by any of the strange men. She went into Mr. Randolph’s daughter's class and had a brief word with her teacher, then pulled the young girl aside. Jen instructed Allie what to do and then led the little 7yr. old back upstairs. Allie was thrilled to think that she was going to get a kitty if she played this game. As the two of them got to the top floor they saw Mr. R and a man in a slick dark suit talking outside of the doorway to the class.

Mr. R waved Jen and his daughter Allie over to get inside the classroom. After a few heated words, the man walked into the classroom as if he didn’t hear Mr. Randolph.

Mr. R was outraged, "Haven’t you ever heard of protocol? You can't just barge into a class like this! You're upsetting my students. Get out now."

The man looked around the room and the students. He saw something move in the office. "What is in there?"

"My pets. My daughter is having show-and-tell today and wanted to bring them. Now if you're done with the 20 questions, you can leave my classroom." Mr. R had to convince this guy that he was no pushover, and continued with the 'pet cat' rouse so they would leave Ed alone after this.

"How is it that they got way up here from the bottom floor?" The man said with a sickening smile.

Allie spoke up, "I accidentally let my little kitty out, and Danny followed her."

Jen forgot to tell her that Ed was a boy, but then realized that was probably an even better move, 'him' being a 'her' instead. Jen quickly added, "The cat must have slipped out because the teacher forgot to close the door all the way. The dog followed her out of the room then on up here where she smelled her owner..." Jen was uncomfortable referring to her friend Ed as some dumb cat, as it was too demeaning to him.

"Kitty!" Allie saw Edward poke his head out of the office, she ran over and flung the door wide open. Ed gasped at being found and Dan let out a startled bark. Allie was surprised and scared so Edward quickly hissed at Dan to shut up. The dog laid back down reluctantly and warned off the man at the classroom door with an intent stare and curling lips. Meanwhile, Ed tried to pretend to be a cat, which was a ridiculous sight. He said a couple of 'meow's, trying to sound convincing, as Ed does not 'meow' at all. He walked over to Allie without giving away anything that would show he was petrified of giving an unconvincing performance.

Allie saved him from his stage fright by happily picking him up and squeezed the breath out of him. Ed winced but kept purring. Until now he never knew he could purr. It simply didn't occur to him that cats purred on a regular basis, especially towards their owners. So to pass for normal, he had to try. Ed thought for a second and realized that even though cats purr, they don’t necessarily do that when people are shouting at the door. So trying to be as catlike as possible he wriggled out of Allie’s hug and lead her around the office to where the adults couldn’t see. "Please be quiet Allie, my name is Edward, it's going to be ok. Just please, be very quiet." He said as hushed and as calm as possible while alternating looking towards the door and up at her.

Then smiling and nodding, Allie put a finger to her lips and then picked him up again and said quietly, "I didn’t know you were a talking boy cat! You’re going to love it at my house!"

Ed just looked at her quizzically for a moment. Through the doorway he could hear Mr. R argue with the man wearing the smug suit. Each word his teacher said was without any note of kindness towards the man, and sounded more like a warning a mob boss would give an enemy.

"You disrespect me when you barge into my classroom uninvited. You're obviously not a parent of any of these students. It's deplorable the way you arrogantly march around the halls disturbing classrooms of good children. I don't care why you are here, but if you're not out of my school in 3 minutes, I will personally escort you out." Mr. R paused for full effect while he calmly moved his jacket out of the way for a small gray pistol handle to be clearly seen by the suited man. Mr. R stood firm and resolute as the man snorted quietly and looked once more over his shoulder to take note of the office. Then looked directly into Mr. Randolph’s cold eyes and respected the threat. Had the man known that the gray handle belonged only to a toy gun replica the teacher had confiscated a few days ago, the man might have done something else. But as it was, he turned around and left the classroom.

Mr. R followed for a few steps to guard his classroom doorway. After the man left his sight down the stairs, Mr. R hit the button next to the door for the intercom to the principal's office. "We need a complete lock down, now. Get these assholes out of the school before they do anything. Trust me, do not let them stay." Mr. Randolph said quietly into the intercom so the students wouldn't become upset.

A raspy electronic female voice came back and said, "Apparently they've already started to leave."

"Make sure that the lock down is activated as soon as they’ve left and a clean sweep of the whole school takes place."

"Are you sure? Seems a bit excessive..."

"They were after Edward," he paused and looked at his office. Through the doorway he could see his daughter squeezing the life out of Ed. "Make sure they’re gone, I will be down in ten minutes," he then added, "who can we call to detain those guys?"

"Have they threatened anyone? Did they say or do anything? Because we can't have them arrested for no good reason, they had legal permits to search our school for any hazardous materials."

Mr. R thought that if that were true, he should have been apprehended for having a _gun_ in a classroom. It must be a cover, they were not after hazardous materials, they were after something more specific.

She said a little quieter, "We are not licensed to have any animals bigger then a hamster inside the building. They can't take away the trained dog because he is tagged and licensed to be a guide-dog. However, they can legally take away 'the cat' since he's not in a kennel or used to assist the children. Technically, we are not allowed to have Edward here when he is feline. We are breaking the law and I don't want to make waves with these guys. So, we are letting them leave peaceably and we are going to send all of the kids home once it's confirmed that they have gone far enough away. I'm sorry we can't do more..."

"I understand. Still, I won't let them take away my student. I will be right on down soon to help with the clean sweep. We can do that at least right?"

"Yes, we can. After today, it would be best if Ed didn't come back to school for a little while. We can send him his homework until it's safe for him to come back."

"Ok, I hear ya. Thank you for keeping him as a student."

"Of course." the raspy voice said, Mr. R could hear the smile in her voice just before she clicked off the intercom.

After letting up on the intercom button, Mr. R turned around and looked at his classroom. The kids looked back expectantly at him, waiting for answers, or orders, because they couldn't hear the conversation. He smiled at them, alleviating their anxiety a little, and told them to continue to read until the end of the class period. The kids eventually got out their books and started to read, occasionally looking at the door or out the windows. Mr. R walked into his office and said, "All clear."

Ed gave a relieved sigh but was still on edge. He was so nervous that he didn’t even notice that Allie was having trouble holding him up. She dropped him on his butt and he yelped. At first his back was sore but soon he hurt all over.

 

 


	2. The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changing from a cat into a kid is not as easy and simple as movies would have you believe...

Chapter 2 The Plan

 

 

 

Edward started to breath rapidly and cringe.

"I’m… it's… oww... " he tried to hide himself away from the others, but didn't get far. Ed groaned and laid down on his side holding his stomach as his tail curled inward. He tried to put on a brave face but the transformation was very stressful this time.

Jen figured out what was going to happen and led Allie out of the room and shut the door behind her. Even though Ed changed shape nearly every day, very few had actually seen it happen. The school was generous enough to put privacy booths on each floor so Ed doesn’t have to go far to find privacy while he shape-shifts. Spare clothes from home were set in each and sometimes... they weren't replenish. Ed was grateful that Dan was packed with his shirt and jeans so he wouldn't have to leave the office with a notebook over each end. Especially since Jen was around this time.

Jen had seen him change before just once, when Jack and Ed were out in town getting something to eat and Dan wasn’t there. They went behind the nearest building and hid in the landscaping while Ed shifted. Jack took off his long sleeved shirt and gave it to Ed who wore it out of the shrubs as if it were covering short shorts. Neither of them knew Jen was watching, and she never told them. She knew he didn’t really want to talk about it, but was filled with questions and wondered when the right time would be to ask about the shape-shifts. She wanted mostly to learn how they happen, not really why.

She took Allie over to Ed’s desk and sat her down and had her color in Ed’s notebook. Keeping an eye on the door and an ear out for trouble. She could hear Mr. R give comforting words to Edward and it was obvious that he couldn't think of anything much else to say but, "It's alright, it's ok."

Meanwhile, Jack soon heard about the commotion and quickly made his way upstairs towards Ed's classroom. After pounding on the door, one of the kids opened it for him, hearing his voice call out for his brother. He burst in with wild eyes that raced around the room and he was panting from panic. Several kids pointed to the office and said, "In there."

Jack walked almost hesitantly past Jen and Allie and opened the door cautiously, not knowing what to expect. He thought Ed was injured or killed by the way the kids faces looked. He looked over to Ed who was still transforming. Ed's ears became more rounded and his overall shape lengthened. Ed twitched and jerked. To calm his heart-rate he tried to breath heavily. He couldn't help but let out some slight groans through gnashed teeth as sounds of bones popping echoed quietly in the room. Jack grabbed the pair of pants out of Dan’s pack and put them next to Ed. He sighed and shook his head, relieved that his little brother was more or less ok.

He pulled out Ed’s shirt and placed it discreetly over his legs. While it's perfectly fine to see a cat running around naked, it's not ok for a boy of Ed’s age. Soon as Ed's hands were sporting fingers long enough, Jack handed Ed a large thermos of the energy drink, Pangal Blaster from Dan's pack. Ed downed it in a few seconds once his human lips formed to expedite the drink, as lapping it up one tongue flick at a time would take too long. They found out through trial and error that If Ed doesn’t get electrolyte heavy water quickly, he stays weak for hours. Sometimes it would be a brand of sports drink, or an energy bar in emergencies.

Jack sat cross-legged next to Ed and calmed him down by just being there. Mr. R stood back and had no idea what to do to help. He suddenly felt very weak compared to the strength of the bond these brothers had.

Ed grabbed Jack’s arm and clenched his teeth, with some high pitched grinding noises, the teeth sheered off the points against each other and turned more squarish and human-like. He spat out the white paste which used to be the sharp tips of his fangs, mixed a little with blood from his gums as the new human bicuspids emerged. The fur became very thin and brittle just before it fell off, but by then the hairs were so thin they were unperceivable on the ground. With every violent jerk, more bone cracking sounds were heard until it slowed as he got bigger. His nervous system was firing everywhere down the length of his spine from his reshaping / swelling brain and spinal column. When his head and spine reshaped, he had to restrain himself from screaming.

Usually the shifts do not hurt this much but the stress was sending him over the edge. He tried rocking back and forth, holding his forehead in his hands to calm down. Ed’s eyes dilated and he clenched them shut. The others could actually see his legs elongate and go from mere bones in thin veined skin with almost no substance, to getting muscle sinew and then some greater muscle tone. He kicked his legs out to get the blood flowing and the heels suddenly jutted out and formed with more bones popping. All over, his body was getting more muscular, but still, he was just a short, thin, young teenager.

When he finally opened his eyes, he was almost completely human. Edward exhaled heavily and put a hand to his chest and felt it rise and fall with a healthier tempo. His tail remained there, moving back and forth slowly, much to Mr. R's confusion.

The teacher had never seen the transformation before because it's so sporadic there’s no way to predict it. It's only with long exposure to Ed that you have a chance to see him do it, and that’s assuming he doesn’t have somewhere to hide for a few minutes. The shape-shift is so efficient that everyone who sees the before and after notices that it's almost complete with only a few ‘leftovers’.

The tail was a dead giveaway, and sometimes the ears didn’t always round off, giving every impression that he would suddenly go for your neck when he licks his lips.

The whiskers over his eyes are usually short enough and well hidden in human eyebrows that they go ignored. The minutely small ones under his jaw, close to his ears, are easily overlooked as Edward rarely angles his head so high up, and people usually forget how many whiskers cats actually have on their face. Those jaw whiskers could be trimmed too and nearly unnoticeable unless you knew they were once there. But the ones on his upper lip had to be yanked out every time he turned human because they couldn’t cut them without stubble showing clearly, and they always return when he shifts back into a cat. His eyes remained bright emerald green with the vertical black slit pupil that is the feline trademark. Often, when asked by strangers, he would tell them they were just decorative contact lenses. If they persisted he would simply inform them where they could get a customized pair and warned them that they were not cheap, with his own models being able to dilate and contract for a few extra grand thrown down. Jack would always chuckle under his breath, thinking that Edward was sometimes a terrible show off when he wants to be.

Ed sat up, took note of who had witnessed what had happened and motioned for them to turn away for a minute. He pulled up his pants and cracked the whole length of his spine and all of his newly formed finger knuckles and various joints. Attempting to get them all in line before they trigger a spasm of muscle cramps. Jogging in place for a second helped get the blood pumping to the longer legs and arms, and it also helped clear his mind a little. "That went well." He said mildly sarcastically, facing the window and angled his head awkwardly so his neck would crack as well.

He then started to put on his shirt when he looked around to see Mr. R absent mindedly trying to touch the waving 32 inch tail that was inches in front of him. Not in any particular way, Mr. R was just trying to wrap his head around what occurred right in front of his eyes. There’s a peculiar thing about knowing that something happens everyday and then seeing it take place in front of you. Like childbirth, we all know it happens, but not everyone actually sees the whole _detailed_ process.

Jack and Ed looked at each other, then at Mr. R who just stood there mouth agape. They knew instantly what he wanted to ask. Edward pulled his long tail around in front of him and ran his hands over it to straighten the fur so it went in the same direction. Then let it go to sway back and forth behind him.

"Not everything disappears… we’ve tried taking my tail off completely once almost 2 years ago," Ed shuddered. "Now _that_ hurt like hell, bleed forever and it came back anyways the very next time I transformed. The only reason we tried to remove it was that we thought we could get rid of it for good. You know, so we wouldn’t have to hide it all the time. It's hard for me to keep it in my pants. It gets to itchin and I want nothing more then to pull it out and let it wag."

Jack suddenly laughed uproariously and Ed gaped at him for a second, startled by the outburst, then gaped because he was thoroughly embarrassed about what he said, and nudged Jack hard in the ribs. Sometimes Ed felt like the more mature brother of the two even though he was far younger then Jack.

"Hey, what's that there? You're such an unkempt dork." Jack pointed at Ed's face.

"Oh yeah, Jack, would you mind?" Ed pulled at his sensitive whiskers on his upper lip gently.

"Right." Jack grabbed Ed’s whiskers from both sides and pulled hard and fast. With a sharp cry all but one of the whiskers was yanked out. Ed rubbed his face in pain, "Gahhhh! You didn’t have to be so rough! And! You missed one scheisse-head!"

"Don't curse in German, only Mom's allowed to do that. Sorry I hurt your pretty face, Puss-without-boots. Hey, let Mr. R take the last one out!" Jack suggested, amused at the idea.

"Yeah, here hold this at the root and pull hard like you were pulling out a kid's tooth." Edward instructed almost clinically.

"Uhh..." Mr. Randolph started to back up but Ed took a step towards him.

"Trust me, it's alright. C'mon, you can’t chicken out now." Ed laughed with wry smile. He figured out that while his teacher appears to be tough as nails, he can't stand to see anyone get hurt, let alone, be the cause of someone's pain. Edward wiped the blood smear off of his chin and upper lip and pointed out the last whisker. "Right here."

Ed pointed at the root and Mr. R grabbed the whisker carefully and looked at Ed who grinned wide, with a curl at the end making it seem more maniacal. Then Mr. R took a brave breath and with a quick tug, the clear hair follicle came out without a fuss. "A souvenir for ya." Edward laughed.

Mr. R, who is as stoic as they come, nearly fainted. He felt sick and sat down at his desk and held the whisker in his hands like an injured bird. Ed and Jack smiled at the fact they freaked out their indomitable teacher, but were more relieved that the trouble was gone.

Jen had taken Allie back down to her classroom and on returning upstairs she heard them through the office door, Ed’s voice sounded louder and less raspy so she walked back into the office to make sure everyone was ok. Even though she acted tough sometimes, she still had a kind and gentle heart underneath it all. She had seen a lot at her young age, yet she was not prepared for the tail.

She walked in - stopped dead in her tracks - and stared directly at it. After a short chuckle between Ed and Jack they finally got her attention. "Hellooooooo?" Ed leaned his head over into her line of sight as her head tilted a little in confusion.

"Oh uh yeah." She quickly looked at her feet. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I’m fine now, don’t worry." He sniffed the air a bit for show. "I don’t sense them anymore." He walked over to the window and glanced outside. He knew they would be back but for now they were safe.

Mr. Randolph wanted to ask so very many questions but Jen finally found her chance and beat him to it. "How... how do you get so big? I mean, when you were so small? Where’d the ‘mass’ come from? Why don't your eyes change too? What triggers it? Is it stress or something else? Why do you still have a tail and..., what were you guys talking about in here?"

Ed and Jack looked at each other again and with a slight shrug, proceeded to answer some of the questions about his body. "Well, it gets bigger," Jack started saying matter of fact-ly.

Ed snickered.

"But… oh, ha ha," Jack mocked and with an embarrassing hand gesture with his thumb and forefinger coming together, he said candidly, "He’s actually _not_ that massive he's really quite flaccid, not everything grows to scale. The girth... just isn't there." Jack snickered right back at him then continued, remembering to straighten up for the lady in the room. Edward laughed to himself at the fact that Jack appeared to be, once again, throwing imaginary Frisbee's at his audience.

"We once took blood samples of him when he’s a cat and then human and compared them, I had an expensive science kit for my birthday couple of years ago, I think, with a microscope, which was very cool and advanced and all that, anyways… his blood and tissue samples don’t change all that much, they mostly just spread apart. I don’t know the science really, way over anyone’s head. Right, well, you two are in Mrs. Donovan's science class, right?" Jack said then stopped, waiting for Ed to jump in and help. Edward just waved at him to go on and leaned up against the desk and let him try to explain it. With a gibelike smile all the while because neither of them still have a clear grasp of how he's able to change shape, let alone, why.

Jack frowned at Ed and faced the others again. "Well, all matter has space between the atoms and depending on the configuration and space between those atoms makes things solid, liquid or gas, right? Well we think that Ed here is able to spread the space out between the cells and we suspect the atoms too, without turning it into another form, like in anything else, solid would turn to liquid then to gas. However in him…he is simply, well, spread out. His weight is only nearly doubled. If he was a normal person of his height and size right now he should be what, 100 lbs at least? That’s 6 times the weight and size of a normal cat. The extra pounds come from the cells enlarging and absorbing..." he faltered a bit trying to remember what they had discussed and decided on back then. "The... molecules of hydrogen in the air maybe? But he also has to drink a ton of energy water. Something like that, isn’t that what we thought? 'Cause you weighed uh, how much?"

"Umm." Ed looked down at his feet. He wasn’t a skinny feline, but he wasn’t the largest one either. And for a 5 foot tall human boy of the guessed age of 14 he was very scrawny but had good muscle tone. Wearing baggy clothes helped hide his slight frame better so people would stop asking him if he was malnourished. As a cat he was of fairly good size but he was actually heavier and more dense then he appeared.

Ed continued to look at his feet, and waited for Jack to proceed with their best-guess explanation.

"Right, and so, yeah… " Jack waved his hands around in a circle as he did the math and tried thinking of an easier way to put it. Eventually turning to Ed, he shrugged.

"I only weigh about 40 pounds right now." Edward held out his arms as if to display himself.

Both Mr. Randolph and Jen stared at him in disbelief. "Get out of here! No way are you 40 lbs, you are as big as I am!" Jen finally said.

"Well, I am as tall and uh we're the same size, but I'm not... as heavy... Sorry!" Ed flinched, waiting for the blow from Jen’s fist for calling her fat.

Jack saw his chance. "See? Watch!" Jack said and slipped behind Edward.

"Gah what?! Put me down!!" Ed exclaimed as Jack lifted him up above his head with little effort. "Jack I mean it! Stop! Gaaahhh!!" Ed waved his arms around trying to grab onto Jack who had him helplessly belly side up.

"Ok ok, hey Jen you want to pick him up too? See? It's really easy!" Jack gave a manic grin as he weight lifted his brother over his head.

"No! Now put it down boy! Down! Sit!" Edward laughed at calling Jack a dog and wriggled out of Jack's grasp and tried to wrestle him to the ground. Jack always took it easy on Ed and they forever teased each other about their differences.

"Tail-less monkey!" Ed shouted.

"Shorty!" Jack noogied Ed’s short hair.

"Captain Fatass!"

"Squints Mc Gee!" Jack loved to point out Ed's vertical slit eyes as it made him appear to be squinting sideways.

"You're just jealous you don't have these amazing feline focals, your pupils are just plain round and BORING!"

"Right right. And you wish you could do this!" Jack said as he pinned Ed to the ground by laying on him, using no tactic, just weight. They wrestled for a few minutes as Jen took a seat next to Mr. R who was still sitting down and holding onto the whisker. Dan took the opportunity to bark his head off at the two and would try to tackle one or the other himself as he was not allowed to roughhouse at school or while 'on duty'. But the boys were having fun so the dog wanted to join in. Jack got some teeth in the leg and shouted, "Dan stop tearing up my shorts! I'm not really hurting the runt so drop it!" He tried to shake his clothes out of the dog's mouth as Dan was now biting his shirt and playing tug of war.

"Ok Dan, drop it, you don't know where that's been!" Ed chuckled, "Let go of that lanky moose."

It was a very interesting relationship between Edward and Jack, close as brothers. Even when it's just Jack and a little cat, he doesn’t let Ed get away with as much as everyone else does. Sibling rivalry still applies even if they aren’t blood or even species related.

As the boys tussled, Jen and Mr. Randolph just looked at each other and then back at the miniature throng as they now exchanged less punches and more verbal insults the more tired they got. Mr. R finally got up and left the office, closing the door behind him. After a minute they heard him say through the door, "The school is nearly empty, I have to help with the sweep. Take your time, kids."

They heard him usher out the last of his students from the room and shut the door behind them. Trying to get back to the subject, Jen cleared her throat at them. "So you're only 40 lbs now, how heavy are you as a cat?" Jen asked.

"About 23 pounds, compacted to make me look smaller then some fat cat that actually weighs that much. Muscle weighs more then fat right?" Ed said with a grin.

"That's not it, you eat too many kitty treats, fatty." Jack said while poking Ed’s ribs that stuck out from his slight frame. Ed kicked Jack's leg. Then they both sat back against the wall trying to catch their breaths from the rematch fight. Punching each other's arms here and there as retorts to visual insults.

After a short pause Jen said, "You’re bleeding."

"Huh? Oh yeah." Ed wiped off his upper lip again. "It's nothing, happens every day… just about _every single day_." He sighed and gave a quiet reassuring smile to Jen.

"It can't be every day, can it?"

"Well most days I don’t change at all, what was it, Jack? How many times in one day was the record?"

"I think it was like 5 shifts, almost 3 months ago. That was intense! Heh, it's like your body couldn't make up its mind."

"I was sore for days after that... almost forgot about that." Ed said. Each shift takes a toll on him, and having that many in one day actually made him ill.

"I never knew." Jen trailed off.

"It's ok, I’m used to it. Dan helps me out a lot and Jack helps... sometimes."

"Oh you fiend! I’m practically your slave!"

"If you were I’d fire you!" Ed pointed a finger at him smirking.

"Too late, I quit," he said waving a dismissive hand at him, "walk yourself home. I’m out of here. You’re too much trouble anyways."

Ed just laughed as Jack fake stormed out of the office and classroom. In reality, he just took the chance to go back down to his classroom to collect his books. He was stopped in the hall by the teachers and he reassured them that Ed was just fine and to send him to detention for all the trouble he’d caused. He then went to his classroom and quickly gathered up his backpack then made his way upstairs. By that time, nearly the whole school was emptied, as the teachers went room to room checking closets and offices. The sweep was almost done and many were of the opinion that it was a needless false alarm.

Mr. Randolph went downstairs to get his daughter and some things and ran into Jack going upstairs and stopped him in the stairwell. Mr. Randolph looked down and collected his thoughts. Then he looked back at Jack with a firm gaze. "What if those men are waiting for the ‘cat’ outside?" Mr. Randolph asked quietly.

"Uh, I don’t know. What should we do? I don’t want to freak out Ed, he’s still tense. I know he is, even though he’s trying very hard to hide it."

"What if I took the dog and a box with holes in it home with me and Allie, they’d assume the cat was in the box and I can return Dan to you guys later."

"Yeah, they probably won't recognize Ed, even if they had known him from before, he has grown a lot in the past 3 years with us. But we better get going before the last of the kids leave so we can sneak out with them."

"I agree, go back upstairs and get what you need from Dan and I will take good care of him. I may also have to get a black and gray kitty for Allie, she’s really taken to them. And if they do decide to drop by my house they will see a black and gray cat there, leaving you boys to rest easy. And don’t you worry about us, I’ve got a security system to put all others to shame!" Mr. Randolph patted Jack on the shoulder and continued down the stairs.

"Don't worry about a thing, I'd jump out of the way of a speeding bus for him!" Jack laughed at his teacher's expression and went back into Ed’s classroom. He stopped when he noticed that Ed and Jen were talking quietly at the bench close to the windows.

"I had a weird childhood, but I guess you prolly already figured that out." Edward said as he smelled a trailing whiff of his brother at the door. He decided to ignore it for now and continued talking with Jen about the strange men.

Jack noticed that Ed was apparently divulging a lot of information about what he thinks is going on. Personally, he didn’t like the idea of involving other people. It's their family's business, and no one else’s. But still, it was nice to see Ed talking to a girl, it's hard for him to get close to anyone because they usually just want a photo of the odd cat or the dude with the green slit eyes. They just want a souvenir of the ‘freak’ and never to just sit and talk with the person.

Jack then realized that Ed must feel pretty lonely. He shook his head and coughed politely as he entered the room. Jen and Ed sat up and looked behind them. "Mr. R wants to take Dan and a box with holes in it, for umm ‘the cat’. Anyways he hopes to trick the baddies into following him, we will get Dan back later, maybe tomorrow. But we’ve got to go now 'cause the school is almost empty. We need to blend in with the rest of the kids that are leaving or the men will notice us for sure. So get what you need from Dan and I’ll take him downstairs to Mr. R, okay?"

"That sounds good, I hope they will be ok." Ed nodded, not wanting to abandon his dog, but figuring that this act might end up saving him instead.

Ed pulled out his things and cell phone and whatnot from the left side bag. He then double checked both sides and took the pack off of Dan, laying it under Mr. Randolph's desk in the office. He gave the dog a big hug. "You be a good dog ok Danny? Keep them safe and I will see you tomorrow. Love you boy." He hugged Dan again and they all started to walk downstairs. He gave the dog over to Jack and said, "We will be close to the entryway, so hurry up."

"Ok." Jack walked down the hall to the Main Office where Mr. R and Allie were waiting. Jack brought Dan’s nose to his and said in a firm voice, "Listen to him. Dan, protect them." Jack pointed at the teacher to make sure Dan knew what was going on. The dog understood the command and wuffed, then nuzzled him. After petting him for a second or two, feeling suspiciously like a goodbye, Jack left him and went off to meet up with Ed and Jen, who were his bigger priority’s.

"Let's wait for them." Edward motioned over to the gaggle of girls walking towards them, heading for the front doors. The three jogged over and then calmly joined in at the back of the group as they crossed the threshold. They talked a bit and started walking off across the street. "I wonder if people are going to think that I'm your boyfriend now." Ed whispered to Jen as they held hands.

Embarrassed, she withdrew hers and gave a nervous but sweet smile back at him. Making his heart melt and thinking that love is eternity in that smile. He felt that the world before later on would be like a fairy tale and the future too uncertain, and frightening. Ed strained to feel something, to sense something about the strangers. He thought if he tried hard enough he could tell where those bastards were, but he didn’t sense anything at all. 'Maybe I'm trying too hard, or maybe they aren't following us.' He thought and breathed a bit easier as they went into a residential area and Jen split off the group with a wave. They nodded over to her and then walked quickly home, taking a different route then usual. The other girls split off too, leaving them to walk alone.

They both held cell phones in their hands in their pant's pockets, ready to speed dial either the cops or home. They only lived 6 blocks away, waiting for Janet or Henry to leave their jobs and go pick them up would take longer then just walking home. So they walked, quickly, nodding to every neighbor they saw, making damn sure that there were witnesses. On turning the corner of their street, Ed saw something and suddenly tensed up, but forced himself to hide the reason why to his brother, until they were inside. Jack sighed a breath of relief as they got to their yard without incident, and walked briskly up their porch stairs and got into their house. Both of them shut the mini-blinds and curtains to the windows. They weren’t taking any chances.

A thought suddenly struck Ed, so he looked around for some paper and hastily wrote down something and rushed it over to Jack for him to read before he said anything.

'They might be listening.’

Jack read that and paused while he studied Ed’s face. He put a question mark after it, and Ed erased it, looking earnestly up at him. Jack then wrote down, 'We have to get out of the house without anyone noticing that we're gone'.

Ed nodded and said aloud, "So what should we watch on TV tonight? I think there’s a marathon going on channel 42."

Jack caught on, saying,"Yeah, the Planet of the Apes movies."

"Right, this apes for you, little monkey boy, hehe. You get the chips." Ed went over and flipped on the TV and got to the right channel, then turned around and motioned for Jack to follow him. They went downstairs then turned to sit under the stairs in a small enclosed room filled with Christmas boxes. Ed shut the door quietly behind them and looked at Jack. Jack repositioned a box to the side so he could sit down next to Ed. Ed said, "I think we can talk here, listen, we have to get out of this house, did you see that blue car out front? I’m positive that no one on our block owns that car."

"Damn, how do we get out of here, Ed? I mean you might be able to sneak out but I’m a bit bigger then you, and less graceful." Jack said, thinking, "Oh! I think we can get to Maggie's house across the street! She's gone for the week and asked Mom if we would water her plants for her. The key is upstairs next to the fridge. Jeez what luck!"

"We still have to get there dude, and they might recognize us. If they're out there, they already saw what we look like." Ed frowned.

They looked around the room. Jack opened up a box he was sitting next to, "Ha, here’s Santa's beard, would that work as a convincing disguise?"

Ed just looked at him and rolled his eyes. "You are really going to play Santa Claus? What else can we wear? We can't stay in here forever... but how can we get across the street without them recognizing us?"

"Umm, we could dye our hair?"

Ed’s face lit up as he remembered that their mom had bought a couple of boxes of hair dye that was on sale a while back. Then his spirits fell when he realized that it was for redheads. They had tried dying Ed’s human head before, but it looked ridiculous because when he was a cat, the dyed blond hair was only on his head and it just didn't look right for a black and gray striped cat to have a bright blond head. Ed had sworn off trying to do that again, Jack helped him attempt to dye it back, but somehow he ended up making Ed's head look like a filled out tic tac toe board the next morning. Ed was not aware, but Jack originally planned to take permanent marker to Ed's head while he slept, at first trying to draw in his head stripes manually, but decided halfway to play a practical joke on him instead. Finally Ed gave up trying, and waited several weeks for new fur to replace the dyed blond strands.

Jack saw the look on Ed’s face, "Oh yeah, your surfer dude days." Jack laughed then quickly covered his mouth and chortled under his breath. Ed gave a nastily look, but knew that they would have to go upstairs and try dying it again. At least he would get to see Jack with a bright red hairdo. Jack's hair was always a light shade of brown, almost sandy, so the red dye would make it practically light up. For Ed it would most likely only make him look like a salmon coat tabby. So he lucked out, but the crappy thing was, is that they had to wait until he turned into a cat to do his whole body at once.

"We would have to wait for my turn, but we can get yours done." Ed said.

They slowly opened the door and walked out of the closet under the stairs. Hastily looking around the basement, Jack found one of his dad's old leather jackets. It was worn and weathered but Jack always thought it looked cool and wanted a good excuse to wear it around. Oddly enough, it still smelled like corn nuts, just like their dad. He was amused to find that it actually had a half empty bag of corn nuts still in its pocket. Jack took it out, bit his lip, then put it back in the pocket. They might need the food.

It didn't fully register in Jack's mind that this was for real until he had that thought. They would need supplies if they were actually going to go on the run. He took off his own jacket and made sure he still had his cell phone in his pants pocket. Glancing around the basement living room he couldn't see anything else that could help them later so he went upstairs to find Ed.

Edward was already halfway done preparing one of the boxes of dye, and stopped the water in the sink from overflowing. He then looked at the tub. He wasn't in any hurry to dye his own hair, but he would have to wait to change first anyway. Who knows when that would be. Jack walked into the bathroom after turning the TV volume up quite a bit, slowly, so as not to show that it was getting steadily louder to drown out the noise in the rest of the house. Looking at the closed mini blinds he said aloud, "I hope they play 'Return to the Planet of the Apes', and the experimental film one with the time traveling dude." He then set the remote down and tip toed into the bathroom.

Ed motioned for him to sit down on the chair he brought in and proceeded to lather up Jack's hair, smirking under his breath. Ten minutes later they were sitting in front of the TV. Jack's head was wrapped up in an old white towel that started to turn pink. They ate some chips and watched 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' for a short while. Only Ed’s breathing would belie how much trouble they were in.

Ed left the living room and went into his bedroom downstairs. Making his way to the small window half covered with dust and fur stuck in spider webs, he carefully peeked out of the drawn curtains. From beyond the hedge to the far left, down the street on the other side of the road, he could just make out the two figures still sitting in the blue car. He figured the men were staking out the house, and wouldn't make a move until they did. Ed cursed them.

Ducking back down he looked around his room at all the dirty clothes and various other teen debris. He then stared at his multitudes of journals that he habitually filled out with the day's events. There was one still on a shelf that hadn't fallen off.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back when I was writing this, I was addicted to the band They Might Be Giants. so I put in nearly every single song title into the text of the whole book at the time. If I remember right, that was about 300 songs or so to fit in circa 2007-2010 Tmbg Discography.   
> There are so so very many personal references in this book! I forgotten how many until I started rereading it. This is my heart.  
> Comments and kudos are love! I'm nervous about putting my heart out here like this. It's not a fanfic and generally, original works don't get much attention online. I'm hoping that at least a few people like it.


	3. Fond Memories of Foolishness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed and Jack reluctantly prepare to go on the run to get far away from the dangerous men. Edward does increasingly strange things as they go, frightening his brother who wonders what the hell happened in Ed's past.

Chapter 3 Fond Memories of Foolishness

 

 

 

The journal was old and worn, in crayon on the front, it read, 'Edward Johnson'. The first of all his journals. It had originally been Henry's when he was young, but he had only filled in a handful of pages with scribbles. Henry took those pages out and gave the old journal to Ed so he could use it instead. Ed gazed at it fondly.

He pulled it off of the shelf and noticed the fine layer of dust on it. Smiling, he blew off the dust and opened up to the front cover with the one picture Henry couldn't remove. A good omen, it was of a cat Henry had when he was a kid. The first few pages were starting to fall out from flipping back and forth and the 3 hole punches were re-taped so they would still be attached. The tape stuck together 2 of the pages, so Ed carefully pulled them apart to find some short paragraphs in Janet’s handwriting:

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

This is Edward's first journal. Today is October 24th 2007\. He is very shy, so I will start it out for him.

Jack is going to school at St. Adams and Ed wants to go with him every day! Edward is so smart for his age. He is reading nearly each day, and he loves Dr. Seuss. He especially loves 'Cat in the Hat'. So, for Halloween this year, Henry and I are making costumes for them to go as Seuss characters. Edward wants to be 'thing one' or 'thing two', I thought he liked the cat more, but he insisted. I will take pictures when we are all done with the costumes.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The rest of that page was blank with a fraction of scotch tape left clinging to it.

Edward flipped around looking for those specific photos among all of the others, but couldn’t find them, he frowned and went back to the beginning of the journal. Towards the front, it had some crayon drawings he made when he was about 7 years old. Mostly stick figures in front of a house. Edward brushed his hand over the cat figure that read 'me' under it. Edward smiled as he looked at the lineup of family members and noticed that he was there twice. At the beginning as a cat, and at the end standing up as a human with a smile that went past his circle head.

Edward flipped through the next few pages and noticed that his drawings became less crude and more proportional. He looked at the bottoms of the pages and recognized Janet's handwriting,

'Edward age 7 months. Dec 14th, 07' A pic of Edward on the roof with a blue cape.

'Edward age 9 months. Feb 8th, 08' The boys were hanging out at the local park.

He always thought it odd that they considered his life began the day he was found on the road. Of course he himself never knew when he was actually born so that day is as good as any to start his new life.

There were some photos taped to pages here and there and a couple pictures must have fallen off over the past few years. One was labeled: 'Edward and Jack 3 months later'. It was of Jack holding Edward up under the front legs so his hind legs and tail were dangling. Young Ed looked extremely happy. Edward smiled and tried to remember that day.

Moving on to the next picture, it was labeled: 'Our new house! February 12th 08' which was a Polaroid picture of the 4 of them on the porch. Jack and Edward sat down front of Henry and Janet. 'Maggie must have taken this photo for us.' He thought to himself. Each journal had on its cover the most recent Polaroid of himself. A kind of visual reminder on how much he had grown since the last one was started.

Flipping through the first journal again, on the next few pages he noticed something and turned back to one. In blue crayon it read:

 

mom an dad said i shud write in here. i think this is stupid.

i gess i shud write about my day. thats what this is for i gess.

it is hard to write with this crayon, it makes the words all wobblie.

 

The next lines were written in pencil, and they were faint and just barely legible.

 

i think this is beter. today me and jack went to the park for a long time. it was fun. i catched a squrrel and gave it to jack, he said it was grose and let it go up the tree. i think he is skared of them. i won't give him more then. or maybe he likes birds beter. but they are hard to catch!

 

Edward smiled as he read that, and remembered going after several birds that summer but was only able to catch one duckling. It was around the grass next to the large pond that was owned by one of Henry's relatives. They had kept it for a couple of days then let it go when they left for home again once the vacation was over.

Among the scraps of writings, there was a packet of recently developed photos that were spilling out. The photos were of their last trip to the nearest mountain, less then an hours' drive to the north. He picked up a picture, their dad Henry had Jack and Ed pinned down in a tuft of grass on the lower slope of the mountain side.

"That's right, Mom took the picture just before lunch." He said quietly. He thought of the happy days they had spent only a year ago. Blissfully unaware of the dangers that would soon find them. He cursed himself for bringing this onto his family.

' _Jack's_ family.' he corrected himself, and felt very alone at that moment. Yes, it was obvious that he wasn't related to his family, but now he stood further apart from them then ever. His past was catching up to him, and they might have to pay a heavy price for their kindness. He hunched over with a heavy heart, and laid on his side, and realized he was tearing up badly.

He had to get it together. Even if he left now by himself, the people, who the 2 men in the car worked for, wouldn't leave the family alone. They might tail them for months to find out any more information about his whereabouts. Ed knew for them to be safe, _he_ would have to keep them safe. His gut instinct told him that somewhere hidden deep inside him, he knows how to play their game.

The phone rang in his room and he leaped off the bed to pick it up before Jack did. "Hello?"

"Hi this is Americheck calling for Mr. Jackson."

"What? No, umm we're the Johnson’s. Sorry!" Relieved, Ed smiled... then the smile faded... this wasn't a telemarketer.

"Ok, when do you think Mr. Jackson will be home?"

"Uh no sorry, I think you have the wrong number, bye." Ed hung up the phone and ran upstairs. He quickly and quietly went to the kitchen and emptied his backpack onto the table, and then pulled out his mom's pepper spray and stuffed it in the front pocket. Looking around, he saw his dad's Swiss army knife in the junk drawer and made sure the blade was still sharp. He glanced around and noticed that Jack wasn't in the living room. Blind panic hit Edward but saw that the front door was still firmly shut.

There was no noise, other then TV in the living room and the sound of water running. Water. Water washes off blood from hands. Ed ran towards it and saw the streaks of red circling down the drain, his heart raced as he took a step closer. He suppressed a surprised chuckle when he saw that it was just Jack finishing up rinsing out his now red hair in the sink. Jack didn't see him walk in, so Ed left the bathroom again and went to the kitchen to grab some things to eat for the road.

'Bread, no. Chips, no too big, impractical.'

"Ummm.." he said opening and shutting every cupboard. 'Beef jerky! Yeah!' He stuffed his backpack with handfuls of individually wrapped jerky strips that his dad loved to eat after work. Followed closely by some lunch snacks in bags.

Opening the fridge, he drank as much milk as he could handle, and put the carton back. Getting under the cupboard, he got some juice boxes and put them on the counter. Then after retrieving his jacket from the closet, he stuffed those pockets as well. Ed’s jacket was very big and baggy on him because of his slight frame, but this helped him out now because it allowed him to really stuff the pockets on the inside of it.

"Some granola bars, some more jerky. What else, what else..." He muttered, tapping his fretful claws on the counter-top.

Jack walked into the kitchen shaking his head to dry his hair faster. Ed motioned for Jack to help. He nodded and tossed Ed the other box of hair dye. Ed opened it and took out the packet and the dye activator and the instructions, the whole box wouldn't fit in his stuffed backpack.

Jack wrote on the dry erase board on the fridge, 'I think I know how to get across the street to Maggie's.'

Ed nodded and smiled. 'Lead the way' he wrote underneath, then erased both messages. Replacing it with 'went to the seven eleven - be back later'. He looked at the words then at Jack who was bent over stuffing his own pocket knife into his sock and shoe. Jack then disappeared into the kitchen to grab his bookbag to fill with ready to eat food and other stuff they would need for the trek. The small convenience store down the street was named '7/11'. To write it as 'seven eleven' on the fridge was part of the family's 'code'.

The Johnson's had a conversation that was rarely repeated. 'What if people were out to find or kidnap Edward for his unique abilities'. It was eventually agreed to have a few precautions for the family. One was a few different code words, the one now written up on the board basically meant: 'We've left for the safe house'. The safe house is an abandoned demonstration home that Henry's company had built a long time ago to show off what amenities they could provide for smaller people. It remained vacant for years because the company found a better way to customize homes and so Henry was able to buy it cheap. It had no real valuables in it, and barely had electricity from the lamp pole on the street. It was cheaper for the company to simply leave the demonstration home on the outskirts of town then to move it or demolish it.

Jack remembered the few times they'd been to the safe house and hoped it was still secure. He looked at the words on the board and nodded at Ed. Together they crept back downstairs. Edward stopped and looked at his room through the open door. He could see a few journals here and there.

"Hang on I've got to hide them." Edward whispered.

"What? Why?"

"I can't let them find these, they're my life, it's personal."

Jack looked at Edward as if to say 'leave them'.

"I know I can't take them... I'll only be a minute." Ed insisted and went to his room. He hadn't the faintest idea where to hide the dozens of journals so he searched around the rest of the basement. He gathered up as many as he could hold and took them into the other part of the basement underneath the stairwell. He stuffed them into a box and threw some old stuffed animals over them. Returning to his room he found Jack picking up a few more journals and putting them under his mattress. His bed was just a mattress and comforter on the floor with a nice flat wooden holder with a tall engraved rim along the outside of it. Ed would frequently fall out of bed in the morning. His body couldn't adjust to the constant changes and his sleeping mind was never clear on how big he currently was, versus, how much room on the bed there was for him. So Henry crafted a nice largish box for the mattress so it wouldn't look so cheesy or like a poor college student's bed. The journals made a bulge under the mattress but they didn't have a whole lot of time to make it perfect. The first journal was placed on top of the bookshelf under some hats.

Glancing around the room one last time, Edward said goodbye to the peaceful life. Jack also felt very depressed and worried as he left their house for what he felt to be the last time. He just wished it didn't have to be through this tiny pet door.

The house never had a back door, a design flaw that helped them in that the 'bad guys' would move to watch the front of the house more thoroughly. Shortly after moving into the house, Henry had crafted the small door so that Edward could gain entrance to the house when he is a cat. It is always extremely difficult for Edward to handle things like keys as a cat so it was useless to expect him to get into the house by the front door. But to keep the house secure from thieves they decided to hide the door behind the large hedges and partway under a storage unit behind the house. The dog could also get in the house via the smallish door but the dog never really used it. Dan the man preferred to keep watch outside.

Ed took off his heavy jacket and shoved it through first, then slid out the door. He then put the jacket on again and helped Jack get his coat out of the cat door next. Jack strained and squeezed out of the small door, eventually turning around to face upwards with an embarrassed grin. Edward reached past the door, grabbed a hold of his belt, and helped tug the lanky moose out. Jack realized he had lost a shoe when he kicked his way out, so Ed shook his head at Jack and dove back in through the door head first and got his shoe from the shelf they had scaled. Handing it over to Jack who then re-laced his shoes tighter.

The storage unit was very close to the ground, only 14 inch clearance, so they had to wriggle their way out from under it. The shrubbery's on the back side of the house were completely overgrown and huge. The needles poked them and Jack kept stiffeling ouch noises. Edward was used to the tight space and needles so he didn't pay them any mind. He made sure the cat door flap was closed and put a branch in front of the door to help hide it. Behind the shrubs, they tried to walk lightly on the crunching rocks. Moving to the side furthest from the men, they walked casually across the back garage then climbed up the very old tree behind it. It was a huge monstrous tree that Ed and Jack enjoyed climbing when they had nothing better to do. The smaller trees surrounding the huge one perfectly hid Ed and Jack's assent.

Edward whispered to Jack, "It's as if nature itself was helping us!"

Jack rolled his eyes as they cat-walked along the long huge tree limbs to the neighbor's garage and hopped on top. From there they couldn't see the parked blue car at all, which was perfect. They carefully made their way over to the other side of the conjoined house and slid down the far end of the rooftop, jumping first down to one side of a long but narrow dog kennel fence. Ed simply jumped off the roof and refrained from showing off at it. At the bottom he helped Jack off of the tall dog fence, guiding his shoes through the links in the tall kennel. There was no way Ed could hold Jack up or catch him if he fell, but he helped where he could.

The neighbor's young German Shepherd was still inside the house, and they knew the dog well, as Dan would play with him all the time in the Johnson's backyard. For now, the boys were grateful for the lack of barks and howls that it did to greet them. They crouched down and peered along the street. The car was more then half a block from them and still facing the opposite way. They couldn't tell if the men were inside the car or not. They prayed that they were.

Waiting for a vehicle to go down the street in the right direction and speed was like waiting for a bus when you're already late. Finally, a nice great big semi truck went down the street heading in the blue car's direction.

"Annnnndddd now!"

They ran across the street as the semi passed by, as fast as they could, and ducked behind a parked car. One of the neighbors saw them, but she thought the boys were just goofing around like usual, blissfully unaware of the situation, she went about her day.

Slowly they crawled to the front of the car and then army crawled on their bellies into the backyard of that house. Lucky for them, the right neighbors were lacking time to trim hedges and tend gardens. The rest of the neighbor's houses were near immaculate, which would have made terrible cover for the army crawling kids. They ducked and dodged the possible glances their way and slipped unnoticed towards the back door of Maggie's house.

Edward said under his breath, "What did I say? Nature rocks!"

Jack had to nod just so Ed would shush. The sound of the unlocking door was like music to their ears as it meant safety. Now inside the cozy living room adjacent to the kitchen door, they quietly made their way to the bedroom window to see the 2 men.

"Ok, I think we're fine for now. They are still in that blue car down the way. We have to stay here for a while because there are probably more of them out there looking for us." Ed said after watching for a few minutes. "Damn."

"What?"

"We still have wait for me to transform to dye my hair. I can't do it now or I will look like I did back in 5th grade."

"What made you think you could pull off that look anyway? I told you that it was a dumb idea." Jack chortled a bit, remembering Ed’s obsession with a surfing show on TV when he was younger.

Because of Ed’s condition, he is unable to swim, and knowing that, Ed wanted to learn how to swim in the worst way. He didn't want to be seen as helpless in water, and to fight that stereotype that 'cats hate water'. He actually envied people that could swim. He already had to deal with being shorter then nearly everyone else, skinnier, ridiculously lighter and, oh yeah, a CAT. How manly can you act when you're a cute ball of fur half the time?

More then anything growing up, he wanted to prove that he wasn't handicapped at anything. He excelled in grades at school, as he was inherently smarter then average. He retained everything he learned and kept journals of every thing that happened just about every single day. He couldn't help it, it made him feel normal and helped his mind purge thoughts and ideas so he could get to sleep at night. It was a bit obsessive compulsive, but he didn't mind jotting events down every night. During the days when he was a feline and unable to write, he would have Jack record him on the transcriber their father was able to get from a previous job. Even though he wrote constantly, he wasn't too good of a writer, no free-form fictions or character driven story-lines. His writings were more factual then entertaining. He was fairly good at sports as long as they were for skill rather then brute strength, but swimming was another matter entirely.

Edward shifted his line of thought.

He was now aware that Jack was taking a shower in Maggie's bathroom and realized he was daydreaming when he was meant to be keeping an eye on the men in the blue car. 'I need to focus.' he murmured to himself. Ed glanced down the street and was relieved to see the men still sitting there, quietly scanning the street up and down. Watching them now, they didn't seem as threatening as before. Ed wasn't quite sure why they wanted him to begin with. He didn't see himself as special.

 

In this town, Amystriss, everyone has some kind of special quality about them. Most of them were little people and their families, so everything in town has easy access for little people, which is great for Ed when he is a cat because he can then reach for stuff they display low enough for shorter people. Their stores have all of the merchandise arranged vertically. Many convenience stores in other towns have 5 or 6 shelves in the aisles in the stores and are arranged horizontally, short people couldn't reach the variety of products on the top 2 shelves and had to settle with what they could reach on the bottom shelves. All of the check out counters, restaurants, theaters, banks, and just about everything else in town had easy access for little people and people in wheelchairs.

Amystriss thrives on the main business of specialty crafted homes. Exporting, as it were, to the rest of the country with even a few clients outside the USA. The entire town was built by the residential construction crews, without relying on any outsiders. Nearly half of the houses were built with completely separate smaller sets of stairs, kitchens, bathrooms and everything tailor made for the needs of the shorter consumers.

There are other business's that are able to stay afloat in such a small town because many employees are hired to do custom jobs by thousands of other 'unique' families in the country. There are different eco-friendly factories on the outskirts of town, including an enormous tree farm circling the south side of Amystriss, constantly growing a specific breed of bamboo that has been cultivated to thrive in the northern climates. It is ideal for the furniture manufacturers because it is able to grow very fast but still remain strong and relatively lightweight. The bamboo plants need large amounts of water, so a part of the river is split off and channeled to water the fields. The tree farm has several other breeds that grow fast and are strong enough to use for building houses and the various furniture stores.

The town wanted to have as much raw material 'on site' to limit outside interference and ultimately reduce the base price of the merchandise. Mainly the residents and store owners wanted to make houses with little people in mind. Many local stores and mini-malls sell accessories for the smaller kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, etcetera. Not to mention that there are several shoe and clothing stores for little people. Elsewhere in the country, the shorter adults would have to shop in the kids section to find clothes that fit. Many times they would have to settle for clothes that don't look age appropriate. 'The Worlds Address' is the name of the small mall in Amystriss and it has several stores with sophisticated and comfortable clothes for people of all sizes and needs. Nearly all of the products sold in town are made within the town and mail ordered for people elsewhere in the country. They produce 10 times as much merchandise then the town could possibly need for its own residences, exporting nearly all of it. Subliminally, it reminds the townspeople that they are not alone in the world.

One such store, 'North to Southpaw', was founded well before it moved its business to the town of Amystriss. Frank North Jr.'s family had run the store for over 2 decades. Eventually they found out about Amystriss by a left handed little person. They got to talking about how there is no store to be found anywhere where someone could buy smaller sized... anything, for left handed people.

Frank North Sr. convinced his son Frank Jr. to run a splinter store in Amystriss. Frank Jr. was welcomed into the secret town, not only because of his willingness to cater, but also the little known fact outside of the family that he has a vestigial tail.

Even though they were both 'righties', Jack and Ed's favorite store in town was Frank's because he had many new gadgets every week for lefties as well as a completely decked out leftie Thunderbird car affixed to the roof of the building. Not only for that reason, Edward was thrilled to find out that he wasn’t the only one in town with a tail. But even so, Ed rarely let it out when in human form. He always felt weird about it, even though in this town, other people simply don’t care what you look like.

Several of the residents of Amystriss were actually Guinness Book of World Record holders. One resident was once the world's smallest person. Many conjoined twins live here, like the Brox girls that share one body, one set of legs and arms with 2 heads, each girl controls their side of the body and work in unison.

A few people were allowed to live in the town even though their peculiar differences were self inflicted. The infamous 'Mr. Klaw' tattooed his entire body to look like a walking pile of bones, fangs and claws. He was outcast because he insisting on eating worms and other insects as his primary diet, further pushed him away from 'the norm'. Another resident insisted that he only felt ‘normal’ when he pierced every available inch on his body. Always harassed when going outside, he sought refuge here, and is now the owner of the larger of the 2 banks in town. He lost the Guinness world record for piercings to a man larger then him that had done the same thing and was able to fit more piercings on himself.

Edward would no doubt be in a Guinness Record of his own category if anyone outside of town knew about the only man alive to transform into an animal. Of course it's not his choice to do so, and he cannot shift on command, but it is what it is. Edward's family loves and accepts him, and the town appreciates his contributions to their society. He is an excellent student in school and aids anyone that needs a bit of help. Retrieving things stuck on roofs is one of his happier chores because there are a lot of kids in Amystriss and twice as many baseballs and Frisbees. For him it's only a few seconds of climbing, and the payment is relishing the envious look on the kid's faces. Some kids purposely throw things on top of their own roofs so that they can see him leap and climb effortlessly onto the house and toss it back to them like a professional pitcher. All the while hiding a few of his more eccentric appendages. His tail for one. Many people are unaware that it doesn't just 'go away' like his fur does.

 

Ed thought of that as he now looked at his pants with the strategic pocket placement. When he is a human his tail is fairly long but his clothes keep it out of the way. Baggy pockets in the back look like they are half full with phone/wallet, etc. but it's actually his tail tucked in and down a pant leg. One hidden pocket in the back allows him to have his tail move freely outside of the pants without seeming awkward. The tailors in town make a lot of money because they are very good at what they do!

He looked around Maggie’s house and made sure that all the window curtains were drawn and shimmied his pants around so his tail could be pulled out to move freely. It was uncomfortable to have it tucked away all the time. Ed once told Jack to put his left arm behind his back in his shirt and keep it there for a full day. Jack agreed that even though it is possible to keep an appendage tied up all day, it simply doesn’t feel right. Ed brushed the black and gray striped fur so it all went in the right direction and pondered how they could speed up his transformation. He wanted to hurry up and dye his fur and get it over with.

It became a strange common knowledge in the family that if you stuck a magnet on Edward it would make his human skin turn to fur, or his fur turn to skin, depending on what form he was currently in. He looked at Maggie’s refrigerator from the living room. Smiling, he saw several shaped magnets, some that look like tropical birds, a jukebox, some fruit, and some shaped like large letters and numbers that were practically begging to be aligned.

He let his mind wander to that day years ago.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jack was compiling a list of food that they needed from the store, and asked Edward to grab a notepad, with a magnet on the back, off of the fridge. Ed pulled it off of the door but couldn’t hand it to Jack because it started sticking to his hand which inexplicably started to shrink slightly. His claws couldn’t be retracted by his ever shrinking fingers and they curled around the magnet in his clutches. It hurt a little, but not too much, it was like an electric shock from a 9 volt battery on the tongue.

"Oww...umm Jack?" he said as he tried flicking it off but it just slid to his palm. His palm then started to shrink too and get soft, black and padded. Traces of fur sprouted from the outsides of his morphed palm. His fingertips grew slightly and nails retracted again. He grunted uncomfortably at the forced shifting of his hand.

"Mmm?" Jack replied as he looked through a cupboard.

"Jack... little help?"

Ed walked over and taped him on the shoulder with the notepad. Jack spun around and didn’t immediately see what he needed help with. Ed tried to shake the notepad off in an exaggerated motion with a raised eyebrow. Jack's jaw dropped.

"What the hell?" Jack leaned in and peeled the notepad off of Ed's black padded cat paw.

"Thank you." he said, rubbing his hand as it reshaped. Shaking it side to side to get the bones and muscles in the right order again before they cramp up.

Jack inspected the magnet to see if it was sticky, like a residue sticker substance, then looked back at Ed who had returned to scrounging in the fridge. Jack carefully placed the notepad onto Ed’s bare skinned back, and it stuck. Soon fur could be seen growing out from under the magnet.

"Ouch! Hey, what the...?" Ed tried and tried to reach around his back to pull it off but it stayed resolutely in place and out of reach.

With his jaw still dropped, Jack grabbed it off of Ed’s back and watched the new fur fall off and flit slowly to the floor. He then deliberately put it on Edward's shoulder.

"Jack, what the heck, man?" He grabbed the notepad by the paper part off his shoulder but it quickly stuck to his palm again. Ed gave Jack an unfriendly look.

"How are you doing that?" Jack asked with awe.

Ed pulled it off his palm by the paper part and put it on his brother. "See how you like it!" and let go, only to have the magnet fall clumsily to the floor. "But ... what?" He looked at it on the floor, and tried it again. It fell a 2nd time then slid over to his foot that was within its magnetic range. Edward's foot started to shrink and he quickly lost his balance and fell over with a humiliating yelp. Ed used the worst curse his young mind could come up with, "Jack! You _Suck_!"

Jack fell over too, but from hysterical laughter.

"Jack please get this thing off me... please?" Ed motioned to his furry cat foot with the long magnet of the notepad firmly stuck to it from his 4 toes to thin ankle. The hazy part inbetween his human skin and feline itched furiously, so he tried to scratch it without getting his claws too close to the magnet. He needed his hands to punch Jack.

Jack just reached in his pocket for his camera-phone, and took some photos. With a level eye, he tried to sound threatening and impressive. "Jack..."

Still giggling at his predicament, Jack finally took the magnet backed notebook off of his brother's furred foot.

"Finally... thank you..." He said leaning over and rubbed his foot as it re-grew back to a fairly normal human foot. Ed rubbed the webbing’s between his normal 4 clawed human toes as they tingled from the quickfire transformations. "What are you writing?" he leaned over to look.

Jack just giggled with the camera phone still in hand, then turned around with a wicked grin and put the notepad square on Ed’s bare chest that soon sprouted thick black fur and took a picture before Ed was able to read the note.

 

"I just got this picture from Jack.." Janet said to Henry going down an aisle at the supermarket.

"Did they tell us what we need to get from the store?" Henry leaned over Janet's shoulder. "What?... Is that...? What does that say?"

" 'Manly men need meat' ?" They both said in unison.

 

Meanwhile, Jack began to playfully throw weaker letter magnets at Ed trying to spell out something on his skin.

"Haha! Jack, you can't spell worth a damn! SLARTYBARTFAST? What the heck is that supposed to be?!"

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Edward began to wonder who could help him, and subconsciously spelled out a certain word on the fridge with the plastic letters.

"We didn’t forget anything at the house right?" Jack yelled from Maggie’s bedroom. Ed jolted back to reality, dropping a small 'H' magnet on the ground, and went to find Jack drying off his now red hair on a maroon towel.

"Well at least you used a red towel. I’d hate to stain one of her good ones."

"Hmm, any ideas on how to do yours?" Jack said ruffling up his bright red hair.

"Dye my fur? Well, I was just playing around with the magnets on the fridge..."

"I don’t think that will work, they aren’t strong enough and soon as you remove them, your fur just falls off. How else can we force the shift?" Jack wondered. They thought for a bit. "Where could we find a very strong magnet in town? Like, well... I don’t think any of the factories have anything like that." Jack rolled up the towel and tossed it into the bathroom.

"No, I remember going to see Dad at work and he warned me to stay in the car till he found out if they did electroplating there. Some kind of machine he used at the old factory he worked at. I think he said that it makes one metal mould onto another by using electricity and magnets. I never really understood what he was talking about. He wouldn’t let me hang out in the old factory because he didn't want to risk me getting hurt." Edward shrugged.

"Hmm, yeah I can see that. Do they do electroplating at Dad's current site?"

"No, I don’t think so. Damn. Well, what else deals with magnets?" Edward asked staring at the fridge. They looked aimlessly around the house for ideas.

A blood donation sticker with a starved mosquito on the front caught Jack's attention. "What about the hospital? Yeah! They have an MRI machine!"

"What is that?"

"MRI is like this huge machine that’s big enough to fill a room, with a tube in the middle. People would get inside the tube and they turn the machine on to see what's inside the person without surgery. Just like a peek at the organs or bones or whatever. Similar to x-rays. I think they do cat scans with it." Jack smiled at the dumb pun, 'cat scans', then continued, "Yeah like, MRI stands for Magnetic rrrrr... Resonance Imaging! Don’t ask me how it works, but I think it's worth a shot." Jack said.

"But, what if I just turn human again when I leave the machine... also when the magnets are on me it does hurt a bit where it changes. Not a whole lot, if the magnet’s pretty flimsy, but a huge powerful magnetic machine? That... that would hurt like hell." Ed rubbed his arm and smiled wearily.

"Yeah you're right, there’s no guarantee that you wouldn’t just change back right away. We have no way of knowing."

After a few minutes they agreed to leave Ed’s hair the way it is. 2 red heads traveling together might attract some attention.

"Man, I always thought this was the town we could have grown old in, it was fun while it lasted." Jack said in a reluctantly reminiscent way to Edward. They looked out of the other windows of the house, making sure that there was only one of the odd cars around. The street was practically bumper to bumper with parked cars but that one in particular stuck out to them. It was an inharmonious feeling that didn't fit in with the tranquility of the street.

"I can't get a good look at the other street behind her backyard without actually leaving the house. Can you see anything, Ed?"

"Ummm." Ed said lost in thought. "It was fun wasn't it?" he said under his breath as he looked forlornly out of the back windows.

"What?" Jack said.

"Nothing, my brain and I are having a trial separation" he shook his head, "I don't see anything out there." Ed said as he closed the curtains. He paced back and forth in the living room for a bit, his tail flicking about in an irritated way.

"What's wrong, Brother?" Jack walked over and held Ed's shoulder.

Ed curtly shrugged it off. "Nothing, it doesn't matter. You can call Dad or something."

"Ok." Jack said, wondering what was bothering his brother, and sat down on the arm of the couch. Edward continued to pace for a few minutes. "He's at the other mine site today, isn't he?" Jack asked looking up the various phone numbers stored in his phone that they had for their parent's numerous work locations.

"Yeah until Friday, they are doing some mining downstream next to the cliffs." Edward said and pointed to the northeast.

"The cliffs? Shit, I don't want to trek all the way out there."

Ed shrugged his shoulders again, his tail flicked fervently. He began to say something then stopped, he bit his lower lip and stood face to face with his big brother. Edward's standing height made him more or less eye level with Jack when he sat on the arm of the couch. Edward stared resolutely, and Jack put down the phone to listen.

Edward stated with considerable determination, "First, I'm gonna say that I'm sorry I got you all into this mess. My mess. But you don't have to worry, I will fix it. You should stay here, and the next time you talk to Mom and Dad, tell them not to follow me either."

Jack was taken aback by that statement and it took him a moment to come up with a response that wasn't along the lines of, 'Fuck that'. He said instead, "Edward, don't talk about going off on your own, _don't even think about it_. Now I'm gonna call Dad and we will figure something out. Together. Alright?" Jack said sternly and pointed at Ed then the couch, like 'sit down'. Ed grinned, but kept walking around the living room, dining room and kitchen, lost in his mind as he thought up a different plan of action. It wasn't in his nature to disobey a direct order given by someone that he trusted with his life. He paced, still keeping an eye on Jack sitting on the couch.

Jack looked through his phone and selected one of the 8 numbers for his dad's work places. Edward could hear it ring, and ring... and ring.

"I thought he was there today, maybe they are all outside."

"Dad always forgets his cell phone in the office. I will try a different number."

Jack flipped to another number and tried it.

Ring... ring... ring... "Hello?" a vaguely familiar voice answered.

"Oh hi, is Dad working out there today? This is Jack Johnson."

"Uh yeah, I saw him here an hour ago, he's probably out at the hardware store. I'll let him know you called."

"Could you tell him it's an emergency, he needs to call either my cell phone or Edward's, tell him _not_ to call the house phone at all."

"Uh yeah, why not your house?"

"It's a long story, could you please tell him that message?" Jack said, trying not to sound disturbed.

"Yeah, sure kid. Bye."

Jack closed his phone and looked at Edward who was biting his thumb. "Maybe we should try the store..." Jack offered.

"No!" Ed shouted suddenly.

"What? Why?"

"It's just, I don't know... we shouldn't be calling everyone in town."

"Well, we could call Mom."

"I don't want to worry her, or get her involved too. She would go straight home to see what was the matter. She'll probably be busy all day at the quilt store in any case. And I don't think we should call anyone else." Edward said firmly. "We probably shouldn't have even called Dad..." He turned around and peeked out of the window to look at his house. "They might be listening." he said quietly, tapping on the sill.

"Do you think they tapped _all_ the phones in this town? Who could do that."

Edward leaned up against the window sill and said, "I think _they_ can."

"Do you remember them from..." Jack trailed off and looked at the floor. "You know, from before?"

"I keep thinking that it is just a matter of time before I can remember my past, but it is hard. Most of it, I'm not even sure was real, usually it comes to me when I sleep. Mom an Dad, they said I used to sleep walk around the house, and.." he paused then sounded very upset, "do... stuff."

"Like what?"

"Umm..." Edward said as he stared resolutely at his feet, avoiding Jack's eyes. "Like, I woke up once with a knife in my hand. And... I...I said something like, 'Hold still' to them..." Edward trembled as he remembered the horrified look on Janet's face as she woke up to him standing on top of the narrow foot board of the bed. "I can't ever forget that look, Mom was so scared of me. I woke up after Dad shouted. I dropped the knife and he just took me back to my room, as if it didn't even happen. I was so... I'm so ashamed. I'm sorry..." Tears started to well up in his eyes and Jack could see them fall to the floor.

"It's ok, no one got hurt. You can't help what you do when you're sleepwalking, I've heard of people doing all kinds of crazy things." Jack said, trying to be helpful.

"But, that's not the only thing. I would wake up some mornings and not know where I was. It was terrifying. I kept expecting to be hit by something, I dunno, like attacked by people or with strange huge weapons swinging out from some concrete walls. Kind of like monsters coming at me from all angles. I couldn't sleep for days after those nightmares."

"Are you sure it's from your past? Maybe it was just a bad dream."

"I don't think it was just a dream, you see, I don't dream."

"What? But I thought..."

"Well I don’t dream about the kinds of stuff that you do, umm, _humans_ do." Edward tried to steady his breathing, he hated saying that word. It separates him even further from his adoptive family. Even though it was completely obvious that Edward was not entirely an animal, he wasn't a full human either.

Ed continued, "Like, you and Mom and Dad tell me about your crazy dreams of flying or of like, being naked in front of class, well, ok yeah... that one is real life for me." Edward chuckled a bit at the irony. "But what I dream of, is too real. The parts that I can remember are way too specific. Like conversations about equations way over my head, and..." Edward looked up trying hard to remember a series of words, trying to repeat and pronounce accurately. "Electro-sizemet – no, electronic – electromagnetinesis of magnititals. I think something like that." he nodded to himself.

"What’s that?"

"Hell if I know!" Edward laughed, throwing out his arms.

Jack took it more seriously. "You react to magnets. You change when they touch you, what if _that_ is what makes your whole body change."

"Could be, it could also be something entirely different. I get the impression that there was more to it then that."

"So. We need some info on these guys, how to fight them, where they came from. Ok, what do we know about them?" He thumbed out the window at the car. "We know that A, they probably knew you when you were young. B, something happened, and you were foun... you came to live with us. And C, they are here now, for you, and, I don’t know what else. What would bad guys want with, no offense, a cat-kid?"

"I don’t know." Edward realized he was holding his tail very tightly. He put it back down and shrugged with his arms out. "I don’t have any special powers, I just shift. I can't fly or shoot lasers from my eyes or cool stuff like that, I can't really win in an all-out fight, besides being able to run my ass away from it. I uh... what else, what else. What would they want with me?" Edward was truly perplexed.

"Well, one thing's for sure," Jack made a hefty fist, "they aren’t going to get you back. Not if I have anything to say about it."

Edward smiled appreciatively and rubbed his hands, looking back out of the window. Jack walked over with his fist and held it out. "Right?"

Edward faced him again and after a beat, made a fist too, gently punching his brother's fist. "Right." he agreed, almost noncommittally. He obviously didn't want Jack to get into trouble on his behalf.

"Right, ok..." Jack picked up his bag again and carried it close to the back door, stopped, then took it into the bedroom.

"What are you doing?" Edward got up and walked into the room.

"We don’t want to enter or exit anywhere using the same route, I saw it in a movie once. If they see you go into a building they will go to that door and wait for you to come out again, that’s how they getcha."

"Heh, we could really mess with their heads and walk right by the car. Last thing they’d expect."

"Yeah, let's go right up to the enemy and say 'hi'. Hahaha." Jack stopped and said, "Wait! We should do that! We might pass for some neighborhood kids, it would be less suspicious then if we keep sneaking around the neighborhood." He laughed again and looked at his un-amused brother.

"Jack be real, they are watching _our_ house, not just anyone’s house, our house. They probably saw us and they know what we look like, we need to get the hell out of town."

"Well, do you have a plan?"

"Not yet, oh Mr. R, when did he say he was going to bring Dan back?"

"Oh uh I don’t know, I can't remember if he said tonight or tomorrow. Oh crap! What if he was followed too? How many could there be out there?"

"They send 4 scouts first to confirm the target then 20 to observe the kill." Edward said then blinked and stammered, "Ohhh... t-that’s right, the target. I was sent..." His eyes narrowed as he stared straight ahead to a spot just past Jack. "I was sent... somewhere... by Aaalll... Albert. There was an Albert there."

Jack waited patiently, listening.

"Yes there was definitely an Albert, big guy with white hair, he was huge... well, I was younger back then. That’s right. The big guy's name was Albert, and he was older, no, the oldest one there?" he cocked his head to dredge up the memory. "He talked to me." After a pause Edward looked up at Jack. "What?"

"Can you describe him? What did he talk to you about?" Jack leaned in and put his left hand gently on Edward's trembling shoulder.

Edward went instantly rigid and combative as he grabbed Jack's hand and twisted his brother's arm to the shoulder. Ed quickly rounded behind him and pulled his arm down to jerk Jack's head and shoulders backwards. He instantly gripped Jack's neck, growling and baring his teeth, he eyed the exposed jugular avidly as blood thumped through the vein. Edward opened his mouth hungrily.

Jack's eyes were wide with fright and he shouted, "Agh! No! Ed please stop!"

Ed snapped his teeth together with a click just millimeters from his skin and suddenly realized that he was gripping Jack's wrist behind his bent backwards spine. Ed's other hand was tightly pinching several key nerves in Jack's neck with claws out. Jack couldn't move, forced to kneel, bent backwards and practically served up on a platter.

Ed's eyes contracted sharply and he retracted his claws, "Shit! Sorry! Oh damn, I’m sorry!" Ed quickly let go of him and stumbled backwards to the wall. Slamming hard against it, he stared wild eyed at his contorted older brother across the room.

Jack bent forwards and took a few chopped breaths. He slowly straightened up, rubbed his shoulder, then neck, and nervously turned around to face his attacker. A moment passed as they looked at each other, half expecting the other one to lunge after them.

Jack rubbed the back of his neck again and coughed as if he was simply changing the subject, "It's no big... no big deal, my bad." Jack nodded somewhat calmly and took a few unsure steps towards him. "We uh... we should get going, Ed."

"I can't believe, oh man I’m sorry. It's just, like reflexes. I’m so sorry." Edward looked up. "Reflexes." he muttered, deeply afraid that it was actually something else.

Jack was a fair bit taller then Edward but stooped most of the time to make him feel better. Edward saw that he wasn’t stooping now, and it made him shrink back all the more.

"I’m so sorry, Jack." he whispered. His hand raised and he saw tiny smears of red on his half exposed claws. His hands rubbed fitfully and he glanced up at Jack, waiting for the onslaught that didn't come.

"Man, what did they do to ya?" Jack said sympathetically, another uneasy moment passed between them, "Just uh, don’t do that again heh heh, you’re stronger then you look Bro." Jack chuckled, giving a respectful grin.

Ed gave a halfhearted smile, then walked guiltily past his brother into the bathroom. Jack tried to collect his thoughts and composure. He anxiously looked about the room for his bearings and finally exhaled. He wondered if it was all imagined, and his little brother didn't just go for his throat like a wild animal.

"Impossible." Jack murmured to himself. He was determined not to take the incident too seriously for the moment. They had more pressing matters at hand and he just couldn't fathom his little brother wanting to harm anyone. 'But the speed of his movements, the accuracy and efficiency in disabling a larger opponent... No. It was an accident and nothing more. End of story.' He thought firmly. 'No good reason to give it any more mind... just find an escape route... for both of us.' Still, it took him a few minutes to settle his churning stomach.

Jack eventually put on his leather jacket again and slowly opened the bedroom window and then the screen. Finding a piece of wood in the sill was a clue that this window likes to shut itself, so Jack secured it and leaned out. The fresh air felt good on his hot face. He looked up and thought to himself, 'There are three facts of this world. The sun shines, the wind blows, and Ed is not a killer.'

Maggie’s backyard was well shaded by heavy trees and thick shrubs, and was fenced on only two sides. The next house over had a few dogs and needed a tall fence because they were jumpers. Jack leaned further out and saw the dogs sleeping in their kennels. Edward tentatively walked back into the bedroom and put his bag next to the window. He then took off his own jacket and stuffed it into Jack's backpack as he had no room in his. Ed hoped that Jack would notice that he had just sheared off all of his claws, but Jack had made up his mind not to dwell on Ed's formidable weapons. Ignoring it, might make them go away again.

Jack motioned to the dogs. "We have to be quiet, they are sleeping, we don’t want to raise a commotion so we should put the bags out first, then jump down onto them. I should go first because you’re more capable of hanging off the side of the house to shut this window again." Jack whispered and leaned out a bit to judge the distance to the ground then turned back to Edward, "Is the house still clean? We didn’t make a mess for Maggie did we?"

"No, I just did a double check. Oh, this door was shut." Edward said as he closed the bedroom door.

"Ok." Jack hoisted the bags out of the window and leaned as far out as he could go. Edward held onto his belt so he wouldn’t loose his balance. A short drop later, the bags were resting on the grass 7 feet below the window. Jack nodded at Edward and awkwardly crawled out of the window feet first. His feet dangled and swayed as they tried to find their footing on the siding, he let his body stretch out and down the other side and tip toed onto the packs. He got off of the bags and held up his hands for Ed to stand on.

Ed shooed him away. Jack waved 'ok ok' then the 'carry on' sign. Ed rolled his eyes and made quick work of the window then screen and back flipped off the window sill without making a sound.

"You like to show off don’t you." Jack whispered.

Ed smiled and bowed at him. Getting their bags back on, one of the dogs heard the zipper keychain rattle. He woke up with a start and walked briskly over to the fence and sniffed and snuffed loudly under the wooden slats. Jack thumbed at the conjoining backyard and they raced quietly over to the opposite street.

Ed whispered, "Jeez I'm glad that was the nice dog and not that mean bitch."

Jack looked at Ed, "Mean bitch? You know it's a male." He chuckled then walked down the street. At the corner they looked both ways before crossing into the open.

"Oh my God, no." Edward gasped.

"You see them?"

"No look, it's Mr. Randolph, shit shit, he's got Dan!" Edward cried.

Jack looked earnestly across the block, and sure enough, there was their teacher with the dog, walking right down the other side of the street to their abandoned house.

"Dammit I thought he said tomorrow! What is he thinking?!" Jack said as they ran over to the edge of sight.

In a loud whisper they called out, "Hey! Mr. R! Pssst! Don't go to my house!"

Dan halted for a second but Mr. Randolph brought him to a heel.

"Shit! Dan come! Come here boy!" Edward got louder and shot looks between the blue car and the dog. "Jack look!" Edward pointed at the car.

"Where did they go? They're not in the car? Dammit where did those bastards go? Did you see them?" Jack looked all over the place for movement.

"Dan! Come here!" Ed faced Jack, "No I didn't see them!"

Mr. Randolph walked up the Johnson's porch steps, the dog got excited and started nuzzling the door, pawing at the bottom kick board, trying to dig his way into his house.

"Dan stop." Mr. Randolph ordered and knocked on the door and waited. Nothing happened, so he rang the bell. Dan started to whine and lunge at the door. "Dan stop!" He said and led the dog around to the side yard. Looking towards the windows, he could faintly hear the TV on. He walked the dog over to the backyard and let Dan in through the gate. He then walked over to the front door again and scribbled a note and stuck it in the door jam. He turned around, looked up and down the street but didn't spot anything unusual. So he stepped off of the front porch and left back down the street again. By this time Jack and Ed started to scramble over to the blue car from behind all the other parked cars and vans on the street. From where they were, it was nearly a full block away. As they ducked down and ran to the blue car, they were also trying to avoid being seen by their teacher.

"Where the hell did those bastards go? We have to find them before they get to Dan!" Edward said half mad, heading to the blue car.

"Ed! Edward stop, we can't fight those men! We have to go now, we can get the dog then just leave town, Edward stop!" Jack said as he chased after him. Ed was clearly better fit to stalk his prey and Jack was not.

"Fuck!" Jack stopped as Ed neared the enemy's car and ducked down. Jack looked at Dan pacing back and forth in the backyard, clearly sniffing out where Ed and Jack went. Dan started to bark loudly at the tree they had scaled to leave the yard.

'Dammit Ed what are you doing?' Jack thought. He then made up his mind and would go after the dog. He knew that the men left the car to go to the house and he couldn't let them get Dan. Edward wasn't going to find the men in the car so he was safe where he was, far down the street. Jack looked up and down the street and made a mad dash for the side yard. Dan spotted him running and turned to join him at the fence gate.

Just then he heard someone shout, "Shoot him!"

"Shit! Dan come!" Out of the corner of his eye Jack saw movement from behind the hedges, coming fast. Unlocking the gate he grabbed the dog's collar, spun around and started for the street.

Edward heard the commotion and ran to meet them at Maggie's. Jack couldn't run and hold Dan's collar at the same time so he let go and shouted, "Go Dan!"

The dog followed alongside Jack but refused to run faster then him.

"Jack!" Edward screamed.

Jack and Dan made it half way across the street when Jack heard a hiss and a muffled 'fwump'. Dan yelped and cried as he toppled over in the street. An orange ball of fuzz stuck out of his side. Jack tried to spin around and get to the dog but the momentum refused to let him do so, and he fell over too, skidding across the pavement. His left hand started to bleed on the street. He rolled over onto his right side and started to crawl back over to Dan.

" _NOOO!!_ " Edward yelled with furious rage.

Edward got to Jack and Dan in seconds and glared at the man who lowered his rifle. Edward knew in an instant the make and model of the rifle, single shot tranq. gun. He had 10 seconds. Before the man could look up, Edward literally leaped on top of him and punched him in 3 strategic places and the man fell hard onto the ground. Edward jumped off as the man fell and ran straight over to Jack and Dan.

"Get up, we've got to go." Edward said as he pulled out the dart and threw it aside. He rolled the dog over to the side to check out the now slightly swelling puncture wound.

"What..w- w- what did you do to him?" Jack stammered, looking over to the body.

"He's alive, I can't find the other one." Ed struggled to pick up the dog who weighed twice as much as him. Dan whimpered and Jack slowly got to his feet.

"Jack focus! Help me!"

Jack made it over to them and tried to hoist the big dog over his back. Jack staggered towards Maggie's house but it was apparent that they couldn't go far with the dead weight. "Ed I'm sorry, we have to leave..." Jack started to pant and Edward nodded. When he got to Maggie's house, Jack put the heavy dog down against his legs and unlocked the back door, he then hefted him back up and laid him down, gently, just inside the door.

Using up his last bits of lucid strength, Dan attempted to get up and lick Jack's bleeding hand, which crushed Jack's heart. He placed his other hand on the dog's head and said, "Good boy." He smiled at the dog, patting his head and ears, then shut and locked the door behind him. "Good boy." he said through the door.

Edward kept an eye out for the other man. He ran around the house and tried to sense where he could be. He started to sniff the air intently. 'Nothing here, no... damn them... no… not here either... where are those bastards?' Edward went to the neighbor's house and pretended to guard it to throw them off if they were watching him from the shadows. He suddenly realized that his tail was still flipping back and forth.

'Damn! What a dead giveaway. Why not wave a flag while I'm at it!' He growled as he stuffed it back in his pants behind a car. He went around the other house a couple more times but still didn't see the other man. He looked back at his own house and saw that there wasn't anyone laying on his front yard.

"Shit!" He ran straight for Maggie's but ran into Jack instead.

"He's in, did you find the other man?"

"No, and the one I knocked out is missing, I'm sure they called reinforcements."

"At least Dan will be safe." Jack looked back at Maggie's. As they spoke, they ran towards the north side of town up the next street over from Maggie's.

"We need to get to Dad, he'll know what to do." Ed said.

"I think we should get to the safe house. Shit! We didn't call Mom yet!"

"We can't call her! They will trace all phone calls made in this area. We would just be telling them where Mom and Dad are and what we're planning to do."

"B-But." Jack stammered.

"We might have to leave town without them." Edward didn't want to say the words any more then Jack wanted to hear them. How could they possibly help their parents? What are they going to do next?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Is the house secure?"

"Yes, Sir. The target left the house with the boy resident. The teacher I spoke with earlier at the school, brought back the canine to the house at 18 hundred hours. The boy and target returned shortly after to try to rescue the canine and agent 5 was knocked out by the target, they retreated east. Agent 6 lost them and retrieved 5 and called for reinforcements."

"I am disappointed in you but I'm impressed by it." Said the tall man in a white suit. Already he was irritated at the formality of this underling's speech, and hoped that they'd get to the point faster.

"Sir, we have already begun to search the house, we found documents and dozens of notebooks. I assume that his training has kicked in."

"So why is he here? Is he trying to blend in?"

"Sir, from what we gather from the notepads, he apparently received head trauma from the incident. He subsequently lost his memory up to that date in May 2007."

"You are telling me that he has been out in the world for 3 years and never thought to return?"

"Yes, Sir."

"That's incredible. I want you to find out exactly what he has been doing, who he's been talking to and what the people know about his abilities. Who else lived in this house with it?"

"Henry and Janet Johnson, the boy's name is Jack. And apparently..." The agent flipped some notes. "The target has taken the name, 'Edward'."

"Edward? Sounds too old fashioned for such an advanced young thing." He said as he chuckled.

"Mr. Albert, Sir?"

"Wipe the house clean, I want everything." Albert said sternly, dusting off his white slacks. The agents saluted him as he left in his huge black car that pulled out of the driveway, nearly hitting 3 of the other agent's black vans.

As Albert drove off, one of them said, "Jeez I wish he would watch it. Course that's asking too much. Yeah, the deranged millionaire. Wish I was a self made millionaire, then I could do whatever I wanted."

"Just be grateful we're still employed, the whole thing nearly collapsed after 'Edward' ran away. Thankfully we were already working on others."

"Others? Oh you mean.."

"Just concentrate on finding the target. Your orders are not to terminate him, but for anyone who assists him, use the serum."

"But Sir, they've been off the grid for years, I don't think they're going to talk now."

"Resisting orders?"

"No Sir, I just mean that it seems expensive to suppress them with the serum, terminating them is so much cheaper." he said, pulling a bullet out of his holster.

"The serum is what Mr. Albert ordered. It's unwise to question orders around here." He said making a throat cut motion with a real serrated knife he instantly slipped out of his belt. He smirked at the newbie as he flipped it over and pocketed it again.

"Of course Sir, I will find the target." He said attempting to sound resolute and swallowing the lump in his throat.

The journals were all found from their hiding places, rounded up to be boxed and placed in a van with other valuable things from the house. In another van went all the photographs, files, every single book, all forms of media; DVD's, CD's and the like, as well as all other manners of documents in the house. In the 3rd van went different samples from the house; their clothes, food, liquids like cleaning products, cut up samples of bedding, and even some house plants and the dog's chew toys among many other random things.

After they were finished with the house, they placed numerous circular disks on the inside of each outer wall. One inside support beam for the house had a disk on each side on the main floor and likewise for the same support beam down into the basement. They sealed the windows and doors from the outside as well as the vents with a shimmering plastic substance. Then they evacuated the area, and an agent hit some buttons on a small canister with a few words marking it, reading; 'Tabula Rasa'. The canister was then thrown right through the opened window into the house, and the window was re-sealed immediately.

After 2 minutes, the house made an almost inaudible hissing sound then silence. From every crack and crevice around the seals and foundation, a brilliant white light poured out for 5 seconds. Then the house creaked and moaned for a bit then settled back down, seemingly several inches shorter then it had been. The agents, satisfied it was clean, quickly tore off the shimmering plastic seals and left before the residents from that section of town woke up from the tranquilizers.

"I hate cleaning house, it is so messy." He said shaking his head.

Inside the house was liken a void. Nothing remained but the outer shell of the building, the support beam from the roof to the basement, and a thick layer of fine gray dust on the concrete slab in the basement.

"Let's go."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Come on Jack, we have to go!"

"Where to, genius? They know who we are, where our parents work, they will find them if we don't first. Mom's job has her all over town so we have some time there, they won't know where she is today but we do. But we don't know where Dad is at the moment, I think he should be back at the site by now and that guy must have given him the message I left."

"Aggg! If Dad calls us on our cell phones they will just triangulate our locations from the signal and find us that way! Why didn't I think of that earlier? It's more then just them listening in to our conversation. We need to get rid of our phones now!" Ed kicked a large rock out of his way and hurt his foot but was too mad to feel it.

"The river isn't far now, we can throw them in there. We will use them like a decoy, send them off on a wild goose chase. But wait, no, urrgg, the river flows to the northeast, right where we are headed."

"What about the storm drains? They go to the treatment facility that's to the south." Ed said pointing.

"I just hope they float long enough. What can we use to make them more buoyant?" Both Jack and Edward padded down their pockets and checked their bags.

"Uh, some of these packets of food have air in them, we can tie the cell phones to a bag, and throw it in." Jack pulled them out.

"But umm, the heavier phones would just turn it upside down and they would short out."

"Not if we sandwich the bags over the phones." Jack said with a light in his eyes.

"Dude, that's brilliant, but we have to do it fast." Ed took out 2 of the packets of corn nuts and used his shoelaces to bind them together with both cell phones turned on and in the middle. Then after saying a little prayer, they dropped it in one of the larger storm drains. Edward laid down on his belly and tried to see where the water was going.

"Uh it's going that way, where is the sun? Which way is that?" Edward pointed with his head still in the drain pipe.

"Yes! It is going southeast!"

Edward back out of the pipe and took off his shoes and tossed them into the pipe as well. "Without the shoelaces, it's awkward, 'sides I run better without shoes." Edward said and got up. "Ok that's one thing done. Let's get to Dad. Oh crap, it is 6:34... they would have cleaned the house by now... bastards." Edward scowled as he jogged next to Jack.

"Cleaned the house? Did I hear you right? Why would they want to clean the house?"

"Oh uh it's not 'cleaning' the house really, it's um..." Ed tried to break it to Jack gently. "They ... vaporized everything in the house. There is nothing left. I have a faint memory of them doing it before... somewhere. Urgh. I forgot about that. I wish I had taken some more stuff out of the house and maybe, I dunno... put it in the shed." Edward said watching the ground fly by as they ran.

"Vaporized the house. Like it has disappeared? Ouch!" Jack stumbled on a stick as they ran through the multitudes of backyards. It wasn't long till he was really huffing and panting as they ran. "Well, we didn't see an explosion, so maybe they haven't done it yet."

"What? No it's a clean operation, like our neighbors will still see our house as it always was, but on the inside is nothing, just dust. And I don't know how, but they fixed it to do the whole job silently, only dogs would hear it. I didn't, but then, I don't quite have that super sensitive hearing of dogs. Pity, that might come in handy once in awhile." Edward said and gave a weak smile.

"So it's all gone now, everything in our house is gone, all we have is in our backpacks..." Jack mulled on the new fact and cursed under his breath.

"Sorry." Edward couldn't look his brother in the eyes so he let Jack run ahead of him for awhile. He stayed silent as the breeze cooled their heated brows.

Jack could tell that Edward felt immensely guilty about the house, but did not know what to say to make him feel better. His own mood wasn't much brighter. But just as before in Maggie's room, he decided to put it all aside to focus on what's still ahead of them. He was somehow able to block out the destroyed house. Until he saw it for himself and it was proven without a doubt, he refused to believe it was gone. Subconsciously, he knew it was true and another part of him also knew that, as shitty as it was, there were bigger things to worry about. So to distract themselves from the things they couldn't possibly change, Jack decided to change the subject instead. "If we take 20th street north we can get to Prefect park easily enough, cross the river at that pedestrian bridge, then maybe zig zag our way passed McMillian's farm, then to Fort Pritchett. If they try to track us I mean." Jack said breathing awkwardly while running and talking.

"If they have something that can track me then we are in big trouble. We should try to walk on the spots where our prints won't show up. Like rocks or tall grass. I don’t remember them having dogs... but it's been awhile. We should try to keep close to the river, we can cross through it to mask our scent from dogs if we need to. I'm not looking forward to getting in the water. But it seems like they don’t want to kill us, I mean they could have, several times already. That’s comforting at least."

"Yeah, real comforting..." Jack muttered, feeling himself get hot from running, he paced his breathing better so he could keep up with Ed. Ed ran slower then he was able, but he also had the burden of guilt that dogged his every step.

"I'm sorry." Edward said again, almost a whisper.

Jack was still upset and had no idea what to say, so he just ran. If it were a natural disaster, it would have been different. No one's fault, and plenty of people to share in the grief of missing memento’s, but this, this was a deliberate attack on them and them alone. Making the two boys feel more alone then ever. They both tried very hard not to think about all the things that they had just now lost from their home. All of their clothes, old toys, photos, movies, books... everything.

It began to swirl around in their minds, and they both eventually slowed to a trot then to a walk as they thought of home. Inevitably, and without speaking, they both remembered the first day they moved into their new house here in Amystriss.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unlike my other fics, these chapters will vary greatly in length and plot. It will make sense the further in it goes!


	4. The New House in a Hidden Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed reminisces about the first day they moved into Amystriss.  
> Ed and Jack discover something is following them on their journey, and Ed debates with Jack on if it deserves to be killed before it has a chance to kill them.

Chapter 4 The New House in a Hidden Town

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

February 12th, 2008

New room! New house! New street! New town! New state! New time zone!

We finally moved! Jack and I spent all day helping out Mom and Dad unpack everything into the living room and dining room of the new house. It's all mostly in boxes still, Mom says that we should have all of it out of the moving truck tomorrow. Today we got so tired of unpacking that we had to take a break for awhile. Dad said we should drive around the town and find a diner or something, so we did and found this way cool place called the Purple Toupee. They had all kinds of stuff on the walls, Jack and I loved the machine thing on one wall, you drop a ball on one side and all these gears and stuff spin and drop and move, like a chain reaction, and at the end it pours you a drink of pop! It is way cool, the food was great too, they had some kind of salmon burger that I ordered, it was so much food I couldn’t eat it all so Jack finished it. We got back to the house and saw this really nice old lady on her porch waving us over. Her name is Maggie Carol and she’s the first person we got to talk to here, besides the town council.

But that was months ago when the council came over to our old house and talked to Mom and Dad for days. They were really interested in me and I guess that it is 'cause of me that we get to live here. I guess it's a real privilege to move into this town. Dad said that he had to do some paperwork first, some kind of contracts or agreements, something like that, before they would even let us see the town.

The town is set up kinda weird and it is as hidden as it gets! Like, to get to the place, we had to go down this really long road off the highway with lots of trees on both sides, the street went up and down some really tall hills and over the same river I think 3 times. Then we get to a driveway to a farm and we drive up past the farm house and to the barn. Then Dad took out that weird black key that we got in the mail from them and turned it in this like large wooden post just in front of the barn doors. The huge barn doors opened automatically then let us in. We drove in and the doors shut behind us. It was really dark in there and we all got really scared, then the back wall of the barn just opened up. I didn’t see where the doors were 'cause it just looked just like the back wall of a barn. So we drove on through the barn and there were these 2 big guys there waiting for us.

They said hi and talked to Dad for a bit, and they gave us a map to show us where our house is. They were really nice but I think they work out a lot 'cause they were huge and they had guns but I don't think that anyone else noticed but me. I could smell the gun oil all over the two guys. They gave us 3 more black keys and 4 house keys and said we each needed a key to get in to the town and for the house itself. I thought that was really cool to have a key to the whole town, like I was the mayor or something! Dad explained that we can't let anyone outside of the town get in and said he would tell us more later. Right past the barn, I saw a huge fence going off in both directions that was really tall and prickly at the top with some black boxes on all the poles. They look like cameras to me, Jack said he didn’t see them, I will have to show him next time. After a few minutes we got to the main roads for the town. A huge sign read, 'Welcome to Amystriss; Eden on Earth'. I thought that was a bit much. I’m not saying it wasn’t pretty but to call it that? I dunno.

The streets were all square gridded until we got to the river, then there was some streets going alongside it, the map showed that our house was on the south side of the river and the school was only 6 blocks away from it. There are like 5 parks and we could see some huge white windmills on the bottom side of town. You could really see them from the diner we went to, I couldn’t count them all but I think it's like 30 windmills. Some made a kinda squeaking noise I could sometimes hear, everyone else said that they didn’t hear anything so maybe it's just me. I looked at the map when we got home from dinner and it looks like the river goes from the bottom left to the top right of the town, southwest to the northeast. A part of the river splits off just inside the dotted line around Amystriss and goes to the forest all along the south side from the western part of the town to the eastern side. It's right to the large dotted line that goes all the way around the whole town, I think that is that fence I saw, because it starts and stops only at the farmhouse at the northernmost point of Amystriss. It looks like the largest buildings are on the south side of the river and the small shops on the north side.

There were a lot of those! When we drove by, Mom got all excited and read every single building name to us. I think she wants to go shopping with us real soon. I hate shopping for clothes with Mom, she’s always picking out the small clothes, I like baggy clothes like Jack's. But she insists on checking out all the pants to see if my tail will fit in them. But, at least I have a 2nd opinion on what looks ok. Jack is no help at all, he likes to pick out the toddler and little kids clothes, really pushing the 'you’re my little brother' angle, what a dope. Meh. I'm 9 already, I'm not a baby. Mom was excited to shop here because she says they have better clothes for people like me. Like, they make the clothes in town, for the individual person, not for the ‘clothes rack’ she says. I must confess, I am a little anxious to see what they have for people like me. I just hope they don’t laugh.

Some of the people started laughing at me a couple of times in our old city's stores. Dad talked to their boss and they said they were sorry but I could hear them laugh when we left. Jerks. Anyways, I hope these guys are nicer then that. There sure were a lot of stores on that one street, all crammed together, a couple looked like they were 2 story shops. One on top and one at street level with brick and old wood for the front and bowed out windows with shelves full of stuff. A few people waved at us when we drove by. I guess everyone here knows everyone so they all could tell who the new people are!

It’s kinda weird to see so many short people in one town. We saw a pair of twins that were stuck to each other. I thought that was awesome, and it made me feel good to see that they could walk down the street and not be bothered or pointed at. They didn’t have anyone take pictures of them, like I did. It was really embarrassing to have people want to take their picture with me just because I look the way I do. They love to point out and grab my ears when they don’t fully round off after the shift, calling me Spock or a Hobbit, I really hate that. It got really bad some days when we couldn’t even go out somewhere without being harassed by some idiot. Jack helped me out a lot with them, he would say how rude they were and start taking pictures of them and pretending that they were the freaks. Eventually they would leave but others would soon pop up, so we just figured out when the best time to shop would be and then do it then. I think that’s one of the reason's Mom and Dad wanted to move here so badly, they said it was a town for people like us, people that are tired of being harassed. I didn’t know what they meant by that until today. Driving around and seeing how many different people there were living in peace with each other. I guess it is like an Eden.

Since today is our first day here, Mom said Jack and I need to be on our best behaviors for the neighbors. Our new neighbors seem really nice, especially Maggie from across the street, she gave us a huge basket with fruit and cookies with a batch of small flowers on the side. She said she grew them herself from her garden and that the person who used to live in our house had many gardens in the backyard that pop up every year. But right now its too cold for flowers, Maggie said some early ones came in and she gave them all to us! I really like her, she’s short like me and she didn’t ask any questions about me, well, besides how we were doing, and how old we were, and when we would start school.

Since Jack is 13 and I’m, well, Mom says I’m nearly 10 years old and I’m also 9 months old now. They say that I look like a 10 year old boy but my ‘gotcha day’ was May 21st last year. I wish I knew how old I really am. But anyway, since I look about 3 years younger then Jack, they want to put me in 4th grade and Jack in 7th. But they only have one school for the kids up until college, then they gotta leave the town for that, because, I think they don’t have enough teachers to do college stuff and the grade school stuff.

We came here right in the middle of the school year so I don’t know what Mom and Dad plan to do. Do they let Jack go to school and finish up this year solo and I come in next year? Or let us both go now. They said it would be really hard for me to just jump into classes so they are still talking about it. I've never been to school before, Mom and Dad tried to teach me at home but we didn't have the right books and they didn't have too much time. Next week they'll meet with the teachers and principle to decide. I always wanted to go to school with Jack, but now, it's kinda scary. I don’t know anyone here. And poor Jack, he had to leave all of his old friends at his old school. He said he didn't care, but I think he is just trying to make me feel better.

Jack said today that he will take me around the place and see where stuff is later on, we have to put air in his dirt bike tires before we go. Dad said he will buy me a bike as soon as spring comes around and they go on sale again, we couldn’t find any in winter, ha! go figure! :) I don’t think that Jack can bike ride on the streets just yet, there’s still some snow on the ground, its a heck of a lot better then where we used to live, it was really deep where it wasn’t plowed. I didn’t get out much during winter, not just 'cause of the snow but 'cause I just couldn’t keep warm outside. It's warmer here though, Maggie says it was a warm winter and spring is just around the bend, that makes me happy.

The new house has like 5 bedrooms, 3 upstairs and 2 big rooms downstairs, Dad wants one of the rooms upstairs as an office so he let Jack and I fight over who gets the other room. Jack and I wrestled for first pick, I won so I picked the basement room. It is a lot bigger and smaller windows, I like it dark, besides, I get my own bathroom downstairs! The other room in the basement is going to be like a second living room for when we have parties and stuff. The backyard is huge! There’s a few trees and bushes next to the house and a really old garage in the back of the yard, Dad said not to go in it 'cause it looks like its gonna fall over. Jack and I will just have to be really careful. Mom said that she’s going to put up a fence around the yard once the ground gets warm again. Right now only one side has a fence and she says it looks odd.

Jack and I got all of our stuff to our rooms and some of the neighbors showed up to help us move some of the big stuff. Dad invited them over next week for an indoor barbeque so we have to unpack everything and get it ready. Tonight, Dad set up a tent in the living room and right now Jack and I are camped out with our sleeping bags in it. It looks kinda spooky here, different smells around the house, I guess I will have to get used to them. The things from our old house have our smells on them and I can tell it's starting to move around the new house. It's actually pretty fun to go into a room and wait for the scent to follow me in. Jack doesn’t smell it as much as I do but then again he doesn’t even know what _he_ smells like! I mean how could you _not know_ what you smell like? He’s so weird. He still doesn’t get it that that’s how I find him so fast when we play hide and seek. He might have a chance in this neighborhood now that I think about it, there are tons of new things to smell, to see, and to fool around with! I can't wait!

Ok, I have to go now, Mom's telling me to stop writing and get to sleep, it's already been an hour since Jack fell asleep, he’s drooling on his pillow, I hope he doesn’t drool on mine! Ok, now I really have to go, goodnight!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Do you remember that day?" Edward asked after a short while. Even though they had only been running for 10 minutes, life here replayed in an instant in their minds.

"Let's get to a safe spot then we can reminisce." Jack said breathing heavily. "I should have finished lunch at school today, I was just thinking about other things at the time. Like, what would be on the quiz tomorrow in history. I guess it doesn't matter much now." Jack then pointed to the low hanging branches of a huge oak that leaned way over to one side. Jack put a hand against it to rest and spit on the ground then tried to catch his breath, practically gasping for air.

Edward walked around the perimeter trying to see past the trees of the park. Jack gave a sly grin and stuck his foot out in Ed's path. Ed noticed it immediately and said, "I see your foot, and I raise you a finger." He pretended to flip a poker card at him and instead flipped the bird.

"Nice." Jack said, pulling out a middle finger from his pocket as a gift for Ed. "Here's your change."

"Ass," Ed laughed and looked around the area. "I don't see anything, we might have a few minutes here, to catch our breaths." It was mostly concerning Jack because Ed wasn't even hot from running yet. He pretended to be though, for Jack's sake.

Jack knew Ed wasn't tired but said nothing, just spat on the ground again and looked up into the tree. "I wonder if I could climb it." He said panting.

"Hmm? Probably, why?"

"Just to see what's up there, get a good view of the land."

"Oh okay." Edward put claws to bark and nimbly hopped up the tree and in seconds was already close to the top. Carefully walking on fingers and toes down a particularly long limb, he poked his head out nearly 30 feet over ground. With a barely audible voice he called down to Jack "I don't see any movement but there are a heck of a lot of houses in town! Never really thought about it being so big."

Jack looked up at where he heard Edward's voice but couldn't see him through the leaves. He wrapped his hands around the lower branches and started to climb up with a chorus of grunting and curses. He was not an adept climber, but still liked doing it. Edward could hear him and went down a few limbs to meet him in the middle.

"I think we have a few minutes here, we should be safe." Ed said.

"Yeah, so long as we're quiet... I couldn't see you from down there at all."

Ed motioned over to 2 branches that were close together that practically made a nice chair for Jack. Jack gratefully slumped down into it and sighed. "Wish we found this tree sooner, we could have had some fun times in this park. Oh wait, have you climbed this tree before?" He glanced over to Ed.

"Ummm yeah probably, some nights I couldn't sleep so I'd go walking around this park and the one next to the river."

"Really? I never knew that." Jack said pulling out a granola bar.

"Yeah, no big deal, I just didn't want to wake you guys up. I couldn't write in my journals late at night because Mom would somehow hear me in the basement and tell me to go back to sleep. So I would sneak out of my hidden door and go write in the park. It was pretty peaceful there. Fact, I think that that tree right over there is where I first went to write."

"Oh. You could have woken me up, I would have sat with you."

"Nah, you need your sleep. I usually take naps all day anyways. 'Sides, you would be pretty bored sitting up a tall tree at 4 am. If you fell asleep up there you might've fallen out! How would I explain that to Mom?"

"So what is it like here at night?"

"Well, some nights it would be raining so I usually went down to the 4th street bridge and sit under it till the rain stopped, then listen to the water hitting the beams to the bridge, you know, the one down that way?"

"Oh yeah, close to Jen's house."

"Yeah, she is a sound sleeper I can tell you that." Edward said grinning at a memory.

"Hmm? What does that mean?"

"Oh uh nothing." Edward stammered and quickly looked away to the distance, eventually coming up with an explanation. "It's just the river can get really loud that's all, right after it rains. You know, the water comes right down from the mountains to the south and west, and it all, or rather, most of it ends up on that part of the river. The flood gates keep it from flooding the bamboo and crops. So yeah." He said finally turning back to face Jack. Jack was even more curious.

"Thanks for the geology lesson but, did you... have you ever been in Jen's house before? 'Cause I haven't." He said with the beginnings of a owlish smile.

"Me? No. Of course not. She's like too old for me... it would be weird..." Edward didn't realize he was defensively backing up further onto the limb.

"She's too old for you, Ed? You're in the same class!"

"Yeah but I'm... jezz do I really have to tell _you_ this? I'm only 3 years old!" Edward exclaimed.

They looked at each other for a bit then both laughed. "Yeah, but you're pretty old for a 3 year old."

"Jack..." Edward said tentatively then looked away. A bird landed on a nearby branch and started to preen itself, completely ignoring the boys. "How old am I, I mean, really?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"I mean, how old am I? It's a simple question! Everyone should at _least_ know that much about themselves!" Edward got a little pissed and looked at Jack in such a way that made him feel uneasy. The bird chittered startlingly at them and flew away in a hurry. Ed's breathing was as unsteady as his eyes on Jack, demanding a response.

"Ed, you know I don't know that." Jack said silently and looked down at his feet and then at the ground way below them.

Edward slumped his shoulders and looked down the tree too then said in a quiet voice. "I wish I knew, but at the same time I don't. Because that would mean that I remember... them."

"I know what you're talking about."

Edward gawked at him then took a breath, ready to shout but then caught himself and clenched his teeth. He took a moment to collect his thoughts and walked back over to where Jack was sitting and exhaled as he crouched down on the next limb over. "I wanted to say, 'how could you know' but that wouldn't be fair to you. It's a hard thing to try to talk about. And I never, with anyone else I couldn't be this straightforward. I can't talk to anyone as easily as with you. Because, well, I trust you, Jack." He looked straight in his older brother's eyes.

"I trust you." He said again and then stepped off of the tree.

"Ed!" Jack reached out, shocked and horrified.

Edward landed on his fingers and feet and quickly whipped his head around to put a finger to his mouth. "Shhh!" he hissed, walking around the tree scanning this way and that into the distance. After double checking, he waved Jack out of the tree too.

"Easy for you to say." Jack muttered to himself. He managed to slowly and agonizingly climb back down the tree. Every twig seemed to catch on his backpack and clothes. Ed's eyes were peeled for any suspicious movement when he felt a tap on his shoulder, Jack said in his ear, "How is it that I can just barely tote this heavy backpack around and get it stuck on every twig, while your backpack somehow defies the laws of physics and doesn't get caught on anything. It doesn't even slow you down!"

"Of course it slows me down. But that's a good thing, it helps you keep up." Edward said with a smile then started walking north again.

"Right." Jack punched his brother's arm. "If we can't get to Dad, where do we go then?"

"Well, we were supposed to head to the safe house as planned. Mom and Dad said that we were to go straight there without even contacting them first in case of an emergency. Then they would go there to meet with us if they couldn't find us anywhere else. Certainly Dad is expecting us to be there."

"Maybe, but maybe not. I don't know if that dude I talked to actually gave him the message. Well, we're closer to Dad's work site then the safe house so we might as well keep going. But we should pick up the pace."

"You're one to talk, I can get there in minutes!"

"Well, why don't you run on ahead and let him know where to pick me up. Here, take my pack with ya." he laughed then saw something and stopped dead in his tracks. "Ed wait."

"What? Why?" Ed instinctively crouched down and had his claws out. He scanned the area for any movement.

"Oh sorry, didn't think you'd be so jumpy. I wanted to let you know that the river is just beyond those weeds and shrubs. Dad and I went fishing here once last year."

"Well let's get closer and see if it's ok. Isn't there a ped bridge back there?" Ed pointed up stream to the south.

"Yeah, I think so, we better hurry."

"Right."

They had to look out for people that might be fishing or picnicking so Edward went first through the 3 foot tall weeds close by. Jack held onto his backpack for him. He started to get worried when he couldn't hear Edward's foot steps or the shuffling of leaves. Eventually he saw his brother's head pop up some 50 feet away and giving the ok sign. Jack tried to be as quiet as his brother but every twig snap made him cringe. Jack tried a different path and stepped next to and frightened a small frog and it croaked noisily at him.

"Oh just get over here!" Edward said with his fists on his hips.

"Fine jeez, I could have done it ninja style too if I didn't have 2 heavy ass bags." He said to Edward when he got closer. "Here." He said testily.

Ed pulled on the backpack again with an 'umpf ' then went to the beginning of the bridge. Water lapped the sides of the bank and would have been soothing under different circumstances. The graceful soaring birds flying and chirping overhead and the rabbits that munched noisily only a few feet away helped calm them but they knew that time was not on their side, and they couldn't stop and enjoy the scenery. Ed noticed the movement in the river, looking at the fish, his ears twitched.

"Hungry?"

"Oh shut up. C'mon let's just cross already."

Ed held onto his stomach as it started to growl to itself. 'Urgh.' Jack smiled a few feet behind him. He noticed the fish too but only just, he had to look hard.

"We would have taken you fishing too but we knew you don't like the killing part, or even worming the hook. Besides if you did like fishing you would have jus kicked our butts at it by just catching the fish with your clawed hands!" He admitted.

"Well, I'm not too sure about that. The water is really fast along here, and I can't swim."

They both scanned around the river when they were half way across the bridge. Ed spotted some people walking on the street in front of them. The street level was 5 feet higher then the pedestrian bridge, that coupled with the low tree branches and angle of the street and the bridge, made it unlikely for the boys to be spotted. However, they themselves could see the people's legs walking from under the overhanging trees next to the river.

Edward's ears perked a little, and he repositioned his backpack to the left so he could lean over the right side of the bridge.

"Whatcha looking for?"

"I thought I heard something underneath." Ed peered under as far as he could.

"Prolly just fish jumping..."

"Yeah." he said, dubious of that answer.

Once on the other side of the river, Edward walked out a ways from the bridge to get a better look underneath it. The wind was blowing in from the north so he was not able to smell it out, if it was there to begin with. He waited for something to move, or make a noise, staring intently at the crisscrossing support beams of the bridge. Satisfied that there was nothing there, he and Jack started walking along the north side of the river heading down stream.

"If we follow the river we should reach the cliffs in no time. It will be a bit hard going once we get to the rocky side though." Jack said thoughtfully as he bit the tip of his thumb.

Behind them, a medium sized animal that's brownish tan with black spots, climbed out from under the support girders of the bridge. It sniffed at the footprints made in the mud and sand then cautiously headed up the riverbank to the street.

Soon after, a man in a suit went to the bridge and walked along it till he reached the center, then simply stood there. He had sun glasses on and something bulky in his right pocket. The spotted animal stared at the man on the bridge intently for several minutes. It then moved undetected behind some plants and despite its 28'' tall, sleek body, it disappeared unseen down an alleyway, and headed more or less east.

After awhile, Jack and Ed started to stumble on the pebbles along the river. Gradually, the pebbled path turned to small jagged rocks then gave way to larger stones. Some of the large boulders had to be scaled over rather then walked around. Ed helped Jack onto a few but the backpacks were beginning to become a major hindrance. Jack held out the backpack and used it as a counter balance. Edward, even though he was shoeless, had little trouble with the large rocks, but the small ones made him slip around. "Urgh. I wish there was an easier way of getting there."

"Jack, wait a minute." Edward put up his hand to stop him. Jack stopped and put down his pack. "There's something... yes, there's definitely something following us." Edward had his nose in the air and his ears perked.

After a few seconds Jack asked, "Is it close?"

Edward narrowed his eyes looking up stream, then shaded them from the sun. "I can't see it but I think I can smell it. It's weird. I can't tell what it is but it's faintly familiar."

"Then it must be those men."

"No it's not a man. But it's.." He tried to pick out the scent from all the others that filled his lungs. "I think it is female, whatever it is. I don't know if it's following us on purpose or what. I think it's getting closer but it's really hard to tell. It's super quiet..."

"We should get going then."

"Or we could kill it."

Jack spun around and looked him straight in the eyes. "What are you talking about? Kill it? I thought you didn't like to kill things. Even though you caught pretty much every animal in the neighborhood you always let them go again unharmed. Hell, we had to get humane mouse traps because you would catch it and play around with it till Mom threw it out the door. Now you want to kill some stupid animal?"

"We have to kill it. Trust me I don't want to, but I also don't want us to die either. We can't risk letting it go." Edward stood firmly in place and kept looking in that one direction. Quickly, but reluctantly, planning his attack.

"Listen to yourself for a minute! If it is able to hunt us down and kill us then we need to get the hell away from it as fast as possible. We can't talk about going back and killing something when you're not even sure if it's after us. It's just not right." Jack said waving his hand at the boulders and scrubby grass behind them.

Ed kept muttering to himself on what he could do to retain the element of surprise for the murderous attack. Jack heard only parts of it and it worried him.

"Ed stop. This isn't you. You're not like this..."

Ed barked at him, "If I don't even know who I am, how the hell are you supposed to know?"

"Because I do you stupid asshole!"

"Jack." Edward said with a fixed gaze.

"Don't you 'Jack' me. We're not killing anything. Got it?"

Edward shrugged him off and stood up on his toes and smelled the air again. "Jack we have to kill it before it knows we detected it. Are you going to help me or not?" Edward said curtly and put his backpack down next to Jack's so he could take off faster.

"No. Edward. We're going to get Dad. That is final."

Edward looked off a ways behind them and smelled the air intently. He then carefully climbed up the bank, walked a couple dozen feet away and aimed his nose to the wind, moving off to another side, paused and inhaled deeply. Then eventually sighed and climbed back down. Jack was relieved to see him come back. There would be no way for him to catch Edward if he decided to run. And, he suspected that even if he could catch up to his brother, he couldn't stop him from killing that thing.

"Just as well, it's moving off." Edward said as he faced forward again.

"Oh, good. Okay let's go." Jack said, trying not to sound strict. A few moments passed as they listened to the river and birds chirping. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so the tension slowly let up between them.

Edward picked up his pack again and centered it on his back and secured and cinched up the waist buckle. "Hey Jack, does your backpack have this too? A belt around here?"

"What? Oh um, I don't think so." He fiddled with the loose straps on his own pack as they started to climb over some more boulders. Grateful for the change of subject, he said, "Yeah, I think Dad got yours from an outing store, mine is just for school. He probably figured you were more the wilderness hiking type then me. He's right." He grinned and kept on trudging along.

They continued on until they reached the farm closest to the cliffs, dubbed 'Fort Pritchett' because of the tall solid fence around the perimeter as well as the fake antique cannon in the front yard for decoration. A well worn gravel road wound around the farm like a snake that's had one too many.

"Can we stop here for a minute, Ed?"

"Hmm? Why?"

"It's just my hand, it is starting to bleed again. I just need to wash it out and tighten the bandage... erm... your socks."

"Oh right, sorry they're not long tube socks, it's all I had at the time."

"No worries, I kind of thought that you weren't going to use your socks after you took your shoes off at the drain pipe. Thank you all the same."

They both went down to the river's edge where the water looked a bit clearer. Jack carefully unwrapped the makeshift bandage and held his hand under the water for a few seconds. Clenching his teeth he said, "It's not really that bad, just like a rug burn."

"A street burn more like."

Jack played with the tiny flaps of torn skin underwater, washing out the small bits of rock and sand that embedded in from the street. He could see Edward fidget with his clothes from the corner of his eye. "Well, since we are in the middle of the fields now, few houses around, I think I'll let my tail out for a bit because it is sure getting hotter out."

"Mmm" Jack agreed, "the water is cool though, did you want to walk along the side shallows for a bit? Cool off your feet?"

"Nah, let's just keep going." Edward gave a relieved sigh as he brushed the tail fur downwards to the tip. It waved briskly back and forth for a few minutes, to loosen up the cramped tail muscles and tendons. "Much better. I'm gonna follow along up here, that water looks deep in some spots."

"Suit yourself." Jack stepped into the cool water, keeping his shoes on so he didn't have to walk on the sharp rocks under the water's surface. Jack had to squint to see under the rippling water to judge where the larger moss covered stones were and to avoid them. He stumbled here and there but thought he was making pretty good time. The rushing water flowed around his feet and he could feel small fish swim past. "Hey Ed, up for some sushi?"

"What?"

"I said are you hungry for some fishes?"

"Why ya got some?"

"Not yet, get over here and get them yourself, they're too quick for me."

Edward went down to the river edge and looked hard into the ripples, though he could see the fish, he didn't dare get into the water. So he followed the fish downstream, walking along the bank searching for a more shallow place he could reach in. The river had carved out much of the riverbank from several floods. So now, the grassy area was a good 3 feet higher then the surface of the water. Ed soon gave up the hunt and just flit his tail irritatingly as his stomach really grumbled. He felt like eating something that was fresher then hermetically sealed meat. They continue on, saying that it wouldn't be good sushi without wasabi anyhow.

After a few minutes, Edward was starting to get far ahead of Jack. "Hey, are we going or what? You're slowing down in there."

"Yeh yeh." Jack started to walk faster in the water until he saw a good place to get out, using an enormous flat boulder that dipped one end into the water. Jack grabbed a hold of some small plants and pulled his way up onto the flat boulder and then shuffled on up the side. He then saw that Ed was standing next to a tree waiting patiently for him to catch up. The lands all around the river where they were, are dotted here and there with some trees but were mostly made up of farms and fields. Large boulders were making more frequent appearances the closer they got to the cliffs.

"I bet Dan would have loved running around here." Jack said.

"Yeah, he loves open spaces like this. I hope he's fine, we'll go back for him only when this is all over. But not before, I don't want him to get in harms way. I do miss him though." Edward looked down and started kicking a pinecone along the short stubby grass that hugged the bank.

Jack joined in.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter isn't very long so I'll post that soon. It introduces a being that is crucial to Ed's existence.


	5. Chapter 5 An Old Adversary and a Helpless Ally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Dustin.  
> The poor son-of-a-bitch.

Chapter 5 An Old Adversary and a Helpless Ally

 

 

 

In a brightly lit room lay 17 stacks of boxes of different sizes, all having labels depicting their contents. Some boxes were scuffed badly on the bases and some had a few puncture marks on the sides. They had traveled far from their home. There were also a few boxes that were leaking with some sweet smelling goo or pungent clear watery substances. On those boxes were scribbled in black permanent marker, 'Learn to use baggies for the shampoo's, cologne and liquids'.

Underneath was scrawled in blue pen, 'Sorry Sir.'

There was a leaning stack of identical blue boxes that were all labeled, 'Urgent care required, Level 5 eyes only.'

One of these had been taken away, opened, and the contents were splayed over top a table in the next room over. The table had something else on it as well, in fact several something's, one of which was breathing slowly. The other was a large flat electrical pad, that closely resembled a laptop computer monitor, but without a keyboard. It lay flat on the table and a pen like stylus was writing on it in short sentences.

'The mother first found it' 'Need to bring in' 'Magnets stick to it' 'Yes' 'Find out when and where' 'Send the birds' 'four of two'.

Pages flickered on the monitor and several icons lit up which were tapped by the stylus and different icons would light up and be tapped. This went on for a half hour before the other something on the table moaned.

"Oh, are you waking up my friend?" A deep voice said in an almost condescending way.

'Mmmurf' went the furry something in a malaise.

"I'm glad you're with us now. You are going to be very groggy for a few minutes but maybe we can have a nice chat later. For now I just need to take your pulse and temperature." As the large man in the white suit spoke, he pulled out his stethoscope.

The furry something lazily tried to shift into an upright position.

"No no, now don't move, you will only open the stitches again."

The animal thought about that, and wasn't happy to hear it. 'Mmmrrrrgggg' It started to growl but suddenly had its head pinned viciously to the table.

"KNOCK IT OFF." The man moved as fast as a blink and had the figure painfully whining for release.

"Are you going to be good?"

The pinned head whimpered and tried to nod, the man felt the attempted movements and let loose of the muzzle. Then he got to work, first taking the temperature with a thin piece of long plastic inserted through a narrow gap in the clenched teeth. The furry figure would have opened its mouth obsequiously had it not been for the several straps of leather tied tightly around its head with the sole purpose of keeping its mouth shut.

The soulful and bleary eyes watched as the large man now put the stethoscope up to his ears and felt around the chest and abdomen.

The figure on the table tried to look around and get some kind of bearing on where it was. It was a simple looking room but there was an air of menace to it that couldn't be placed to any one object. Certainly any one of the objects in a meadow wouldn't make them look at all menacing, but when all put in this particular room made it unbearably heartbreaking.

It thought to itself, 'Why was everything in the room black and white? Why is it so hard to move? Are my legs tied up or what? I must've been drugged, that's why I don't know how I got here. It feels so claustrophobic, the air is so thick and humid. And what is that god-awful smell? It's stinging my eyes and nose.' he blinked a few more times to clear away the viscous stuff that had been used to protect his eyes.

In a flash the figure recognized the room very well and tried not to show how truly frightened it was to be in there. It looked around as far as its hurt neck could arch and saw the smears of a dark gray sticky substance on the table. It had a faint whiff of iron to it. It's head throbbed with the slight movements but it needed to know.

Then it saw the reflection of this table and all its contents on the huge steel cabinet doors on the far wall. Squinting to make out the image, it saw itself.

It passed out from shock.

"Hmm, just as well, he's not quite done yet."

The large man left the unconscious figure in the room with a newly fitted IV bag hanging from a hooked pole. A different wire was hooked into a small needle prong that was implanted into a receiving socket deep into the vestibule of the figure's ear. The other end of the wire was then attached to the flat monitor, still blinking icons. One window on its front had readout lines that jumped and fell at regular intervals, but at different times. Another window had similar lines but were paced at a moderately quicker rate. Both closely resembled gridded stock market prices at their most unstable of times. The rhythmic beeps mimicking the heart were muted to let the figure sleep undisturbed.

"Evening, Sir."

"Evening. Where are the rest of the L 5 boxes?"

"In this room here."

"Good. I want them all taken straight to my office. Oh, and see that Dustin is taken care of in the recovery room."

"Right away, Mr. Albert." He saluted and called for some assistance.

Mr. Albert went to grab some coffee while he waited the transfer of the blue L 5 boxes. Eventually he made his way to his office and opened up the top of one of the boxes, pulling out the contents and placing them in order on a huge table that was brought in as well to help with sorting. Looking around at the items, Albert stepped out of the room and called out to a passing woman, "Hey, do me a favor?"

"Anything, Sir."

"Bring me all the books on the table in the recovery room, but leave the monitor with him. And send a memo to human resources to not leave such a big mess in there next time. Just because people died today, doesn't mean I have to wade through the muck, wearing a raincoat... " Albert said with distasteful grimace at the steamy recovery room that was speckled with blood here and there. He gave a dismissive hand motion for her to get going.

"Yes, Sir."

After a minute all of the L 5 boxes were reunited on the table and all of the contents were soon spread out then sifted by hand to form a chronological timeline. The dated photos on the front covers helped him out immensely. Happily smiling, he licked his upper lip as he opened each of the note books to double check the dates on when it was originally written. Albert noticed the difference in lettering and spelling, and came to pick out the subtle changes in sentence structure and story telling. He marveled at each of the first written pages of the notebooks then placed them down on the tabletop in careful rows of 8.

Then satisfied he arranged them all, picked one up at random and began to flip through the handwritten pages.

Albert always had an uncanny way of finding exactly what he was looking for, but usually dismissed anyone telling him that it was not just a fluke but a gift. The large man reclined in his squeaking chair and soon found the entry he was looking for, and began to read with a giddy smile on his face.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so, when I wrote this bit, it was 2007, and tablets were not easily accessible to people, Ipad wasn't introduced till 2010. I thought it sounded more high-techy back then to have one like this. I was never tech savvy, so, there ya go.
> 
> Dustin is one of the main players and he drew the short straw.


	6. Canine from Constantinople

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I don't know if getting a dog is such a good idea, but we are still going there after lunch. If I'm not eaten by dinner I will write more on it later!"

Chapter 6 Canine from Constantinople

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

March 13th, 08

The weather today is a bit chilly out, not too much wind but it was about 67 degrees. Partly cloudy. The leaves on the trees are almost all bloomed and the bamboo in the new town has already been planted for the year now that the last chance of frost has passed, we hope! We can see for miles on the south side of town once you get past the other tree farms. Jack and I just got back from the library when Mom and Dad told me about some big news. They said that we are all going to find a dog for me today. They said it will help me out everyday to protect me and do whatever I can't do when I turn cat.

I don't know if getting a dog is such a good idea, but we are still going there after lunch. If I'm not eaten by dinner I will write more on it later!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Henry and Jack began to take down the last of the plastic from the windows and opened every last one of them in the house. The whole family enjoyed the fresh scent in all of the rooms. Henry rolled up the plastic with both arms rotating around in wide circles and had Jack pull it off of his arms for him. "Can you take it downstairs and put it in one of the boxes I brought home from the site last week?"

"Sure, Dad." Jack tried to look around the huge bundle of taped plastic, and tossed it down the stairs. He glanced over his shoulder and gave a sly smirk then was ushered down the stairs by Henry to do the job right. They reemerged after a few minutes to see Ed and Janet looking out of the large living room windows.

After a moment Henry laid a gentle hand on Janet and massaged it a bit. Janet nodded and smiled warmly at Edward. Jack simply stood there, shrugged, then went for some pop.

"Guess what." Janet said to Edward.

"Umm what?" Ed said cautiously, reading the expressions on her face.

"We are going to get you a dog!"

"Uhh what? A dog?" Ed felt a slight tinge of fear run through his spine. Henry noticed Ed slowly backing up.

"No no no, a goood dog, not like some random mutt. There is a place in the next town over that has pre-trained guide dogs, for blind people and those with handicaps." Henry reached out and held Ed’s shoulder. "Trust me, you'll like them, they can help you out day to day."

"I’m fine Dad, I don’t need a dog." Ed said semi plaintively.

"Well, your Mom and I have been talking, nearly the whole town knows that you have a special ability, and it's completely alright, Son. There are several other people in town with helper dogs. The dog can carry stuff for you and look out for you when you're... smaller." He smiled at Edward.

"Yeah, but..." Edward looked to Jack for an excuse not to go, but frowned when Jack just threw a bottle of Pangal Blaster energy drink at him.

Jack thought of a compromise, "We can check it out, it's ok. We don't have to get a dog today, but you gotta admit it would help you out. If you are worried that it will be a big mistake, don't, a lot of dogs get along with cats. When you were younger, I just didn't want you to go up to every dog to say hi. That's why I said that crap about them wanted to eat you up, but, you're old enough now to see that not every dog is the same. Most are actually quite nice and loyal. Let's start thinking of the possibilities."

"Well... um, let me think about it..." Edward could feel himself getting a little embarrassed. He left the others and sat down at the window bench as the rest of the family went into the other room to grab some food for the road. 'A dog. A dog... really? Wouldn't he just chase me around all day? Would I have to walk him? Or would he walk me?' The trees outside swayed a bit in the wind. 'It would be nice to go places without having Jack carry around my clothes all the time. I'm sure he's getting tired of the extra weight.' He looked outside for several minutes.

Jack tousled Ed's tail a bit to distract him from worrying too much.

"Oh hi, I was just thinking that I'm gonna start school soon. I probably won't have the same classes with you every single time..."

"Nope. Highly unlikely, Bro." Jack took another swig of pop.

"So you can't be carrying my books and clothes and water for me." They both looked out the window, thinking. Some dead leaves from the previous year fell from the tree in the front yard. "A dog though?" Ed said at the window, fidgeting with his cloths.

"I think we should at least see what they got. See if they have one that's cool."

"But it would have to be a pretty big dog to be strong enough to carry books and stuff."

"Probably, because when you think about it, it's not like you can trust a Chihuahua to carry any books... except books of matches." Jack said.

Another moment passed, they could hear their dad chewing noisily on some corn nuts. Janet was filling up a few water bottles for the long trip because the towns that are closest to Amystriss are still nearly an hour's drive away. The tree lost a few more leaves as the wind picked up a bit. Ed noticed his worried reflection in the window and sighed. "I hope they like cats..." Ed shrugged and untied his jacket from his waist and put it on. His tail swayed back and forth and he remembered to tuck it into his pant leg before going outside.

It wouldn't actually bother any Amystriss resident that Ed had a tail. The nature of the townspeople was too sweet and understanding to get hung up on extra appendages. A good number of people had them! Nevertheless, Ed felt better if he tucked it in whenever they leave the safety of the town. The surrounding cities became used to the regular appearances of uniques and little people and it's not seen as odd but perfectly normal. So Edward's fear was not really founded in the 2nd closest city from Amystriss. It was called Constantinople, resting in a narrow valley close to the Montana and Idaho border. Even thought it was so near, it was still a long drive there, through very hilly and unmarked streets.

Jack and Ed played a few eye spy games but got bored with it because there was not much else then trees, fields, and lots of cliffs. Then they started to count the number of windmills, where Amystriss got most of its power from. They counted over 50 big ones and 30 smaller ones until they got closer to the city of Constantinople. All the while Henry and Janet kept singing, 'Istanbul not Constantinople' and other TMBG songs, which made the time pass by quickly.

Ed and Jack thought they were in New York compared to Amystriss. 'C-town' had several malls, car dealerships, condo's and restaurants everywhere. They drove around the city twice trying to find the Center for the Blind.

"Is that irony?" Jack asked his Dad.

"What?"

"That they would make the Center for the Blind so hard to find! I mean give them a break!" Jack chortled a bit but Ed didn't get the joke.

Edward was busy looking out his window, resisting the primal urge to jump out and run away. Ed was terrified of dogs. He heard what they do to cats and wanted no part of it. But here they were going to go find a dog _specifically_ for him!‘A dog to take care of a cat. They are _man's_ best friend! Not cat's!’ His thought process was interrupted with a large sign passing by his window. The part that went through his line of sight were the words 'The Center', the rest of the sign read 'for the Blind' but it was beneath his window and Ed couldn't readily see it.

"Henry you got a little close there, Sweetie!" Janet looked down at the sign that they just barely missed running into.

" _The Center._.." Ed had a random frightening thought cross his mind and he shuddered.

"We're here!" Janet said in a bright celebratory voice.

"Come on Ed, gotta get in there before the best one is taken!" Henry said as he went around to open Ed’s door.

Ed got out and looked back at the sign at the entrance. 'The Center for the Blind. Not _that_ Center, this one is good, it's ok. It's ok.' He repeated to himself and steadied his excessively troubled breathing.

Jack went around the back of the car and sensed that his brother was freaking out and decided to pick up his spirits. Namely by throwing Ed up over his head and past his shoulders until Ed was piggy back riding him.

"I’ll protect you!" Jack said in a 50's superhero voice. Other adults walked civilly along the path, but Jack wouldn't have it, so he weaved in and out of the shrubberies trying to throw Ed off while still holding onto his thin legs.

"Jack, put him down please." Henry said in a tone which clearly said 'Now'.

"Yeah stop ya jerk! Leggo!" Ed adjusted his scrawny frame upright to do a flawless back flip off of Jack's shoulders.

"Ha! That was cool!" Jack said turning around to pat him on the back for the perfect dismount.

Janet gave ‘the look’ at the boys and they obediently settled down. Ed felt a bit more at ease now.

A nice older lady walked into the reception area to greet them. "Hello, my name is Lucillia, is this your first time here?"

"Yes, but we're actually expected, is Mr. Nordwin here? He's the guy we talked to on the phone." Henry asked.

"Yes he is, you will find him through those doors there, go left then down the hall, follow the ridged hand rail the rest of the way, it will take you to the kennels. Have a great day." She smiled at the boys and wondered which one was blind because neither had canes, nor was careful where they walked.

"Ridges all down the hand rails? That's pretty clever." Jack said as he noticed the other rail had soft bumps running down it. When they got to the end, they were able to hear dogs barking.

Ed tensed up at the terrifying sound, but kept walking, not realizing that he was shuffle-walking closer and closer to Jack. Jack noticed his brother's anxious glances everywhere but said nothing, instead, he helped bridge the gap a little by leaning closer to Ed and put an arm around his thin shoulder. Through another set of doors they saw a long room with 4 kennels along one wall. The dogs barked happily at the visitors.

"Calm down, calm down puppies!" said a voice from the 4th kennel. "Sit" the dogs settled down and sat up obediently.

"Um hello?" Henry said to the voice.

Something dropped in the 4th kennel and a man's head popped out of the door. "Oh hi! Sorry, I didn't hear you come in. My name's Damian Nordwin, and you arrree Henry Johnson?"

Henry nodded and introduced the boys and his wife. The man took a few steps out of the kennel holding a brown husky mix by the collar and shook their hands one by one. The dog let him even though the man was only 4 foot tall and the dog could have easily over powered him. Ed thought Mr. Nordwin was probably from the same town that they were from and commuted here daily.

"Glad you could make it!" Damian said amicably. "This here is Daniel. He is a 5 year old Australian Shepherd/Husky mix which means that he is strong and devoted. And he loves cats." He winked at Edward.

Edward's face flushed red and backed up behind Jack, double checking to see that his tail was still hidden. His heart rate jumped a little at Mr. Nordwin's grin. 'Is it really that obvious? What gave me away? What's he gonna do?'

Henry patted him on the back, "It's ok Ed, he knows, it's cool. He's one of us."

"Well, let's see how they do. C'mon over here, boy." Damian held out his hand for Ed to introduce himself to the dog.

Edward slowly and bravely, he thought, walked right towards the dog. The dog was looking at Ed’s feet casually then looked up quizzically at Ed's face. It sniffed him and Ed stretched out his hand for the dog to smell as his mom instructed him to do while in the car. The dog eagerly sniffed it all over and started to lick his hand. Ed recoiled when he saw the teeth and held his breath. The dog was simply happy to see them, so Damian let the dog off of his leash. The dog went up to Edward and nuzzled his hand till Ed was almost forced to stroke the dog's head at its own encouraging.

"Hi dog." Ed said quietly and nervously.

The dog wagged his tail enthusiastically and licked Ed’s hand more. Jack went over and started to pet the dog too, seeing that Ed was not in any danger worse then being licked and nuzzled to death.

"Wow, he's soft." Jack rubbed the dog behind the ears and Ed relaxed. He decided he liked this dog, maybe they were not all bloodthirsty killers.

Damian Nordwin piped up, "Yup, Daniel was well taken care of too, he grew up in a house absolutely full of cats, some crazy cat lady you know. Well, the county seized her house and took the cats to their shelters and Daniel here to our shelter. We knew he would be great with children and was surprisingly obedient. Apparently the old lady trained him to take care of all her cats. I mean talk about good news for you! Soon as I got your call this little fella was the first to come to mind. These other dogs tolerate cats, but only for so long... you know what I mean." Damian said a bit more candidly, he looked at the other kennels and already the other dogs were whimpering and begging, one was even drooling. Henry stood in front of that kennel so Ed wouldn't see.

Edward didn't have to see, he could smell the dog's hunger in the air. It made him very uneasy. Daniel must have picked up on it because he immediately bristled and rounded on the other kennels and growled at the other dogs. Putting himself between Ed and the kennels and shifting his stare from one dog to another, warning them off. Ed was startled but some part of him was pleased with this snarling dog. Ed was no longer afraid of him, feeling the devotion in Daniel's actions as it had just turned on its cell-mates to protect him at all costs.

"Would ya look at that!" Damian said with a smile. "Well that's it, this is the dog for you, he has already bonded!" He immediately went to get the training leash and the dog's shoulder harness, handing them over to Henry and instructing on what strap goes where on the dog to have the metal handle right side up. "I know your boy's aren’t blind but you need this special handle and harness to take him into businesses that allow helper dogs." He fitted the dog on the simpler leash and hung it up on the wall temporarily. Going back into the 4th kennel that Daniel was held in, he brought out 2 toys, one was a rubber rolled up newspaper and the other was a stuffed bear that had some wear and tear on it.

"These are his favorite toys, it helps in training to reward them with toys rather then food 'cause you may not always have food for them, and you don’t want them to become overweight, they are a working dog after all. We do all the basic training for you, sit, stay, roll over, heel, lay down, all that stuff. There is a little book at the front desk for you, to help you see what all this amazing dog is capable of."

"Well, we haven't even decided if..." Henry trailed off looking at Ed for a confirmation. Ed was busy rubbing the dog's ears and petting it. "Edward?"

"Oh yeah, Dad?" Ed looked up.

"Do you... is this the one you like?"

"Oh he's awesome, I like him." Ed scratched the dog's back. The dog was very appreciative of Edward's sharp nails and kicked his leg about. Jack was standing behind the dog and laughed as the dog started to kick him as Ed scratched faster.

"Yeah I like him too, Dad. Let's keep him!"

"Well all right then. Let's get up to my desk and we will sign the papers." Damian said as he led them to the desk with the boys and dog in tow.

Jack had the leash while Ed walked beside the dog, lagging far behind the others.

"Jack, don't you think the name Daniel sounds so, well, wrong for a dog. Like proper?"

"Right Ed-ward. Too proper." Jack smirked at Ed. "Well he is your dog now, you can call him whatever you like."

"Something close to 'Daniel' so he'll recognize his name, how about just 'Dan'."

"Ha! Dan the man." Jack suggested.

Edward went down the hallway and said, "That's just so weird it might work. Come here, Dan the man!" Edward called to the dog and the dog wagged his tail faster and pulled on the leash to get to Ed.

Jack let go of the leash and Dan ran down and suddenly tackled Ed, tumbling over and over with yelps and cries made by both.

"Gah! Ed! Are you ok?" Jack ran down the hall to reach them. Ed started laughing and pushing Dan to get off of him. The dog was about the same size as Edward and held back little, expecting some clout to the shoves. The dog happily played and nuzzled him around with little effort because Edward was lighter then the dog but looked like a normal kid. The dog learned not to roughhouse too much with this interesting boy, but loved the way Ed smelled and couldn't get enough, burrowing his nose deep into Ed's cloths.

"Dan sit!" Ed called from underneath the dog.

Dan then backed up and sat down still panting and wagging his tail.

"Enthusiastic little dog huh?" Jack said as he regained the leash.

"Not that little! But he's good, this is good. Good boy, Dan." Ed smiled.

"Good good good." Jack copied.

Damian sat Henry and Janet down in the conference room and went over the do's and dont's and suggestions on how to keep the dog in top working condition. Damian had never had to teach an owner as unique as Ed before, and felt more comfortable telling his parents and having them relay it to him later. Mr. Nordwin could tell that Ed's ability was not something that he wanted to talk openly about. And, concerned that the dog would respond unpredictably to Ed's shifting, he insisted that at least one person be with Ed and the dog at all times for at least the first week or the first couple times he shifted.

They let the kids goof around with the dog some more in the safety of the training room, and drew a small crowd. Dan's trainers were there, congratulating each other for the dog's good behavior and were pleased with the new owners. But, some were curious why these healthy kids were getting the dog, but let them be, the handicap must not be an obvious one. The family received the necessary papers and training video, and a huge bag of dog food and got it all into the trunk of the car after a few more parting words.

"What's this for, Dad?" Jack said as he held out a paper and a plastic card with a bar code and a hole punched out of it.

"Oh well, sometimes they put a small chip in animal so that if they should get lost they can be scanned at any vets office or animal shelter and they will know right where to take the dog to find its owners." Henry reached out and read the sheet of paper that Jack was holding."Yeah right here it says the dog's Id number and this Blind Center's location so if he should get loose they will send him here and they will let us know that they have him for us to pick up again. Pretty neat huh?"

"Yeah, we should get Ed tagged too!"

"Maybe both of you, you boys get into so much I think it would be a great idea. What do you think, Honey?"

"I think we should have taken the truck." Janet said as she patted the dog.

"He can ride in the backseat."

"Ok, then Jack can ride in the trunk." Ed reasoned.

"Or you can ride on the roof! You are pretty good on rooftops there, Ed."

"What was that sweetie?" Janet said as she shut the trunk lid.

Henry gave a look at the boys who feigned amnesia.

"Oh what, what just happened? What were we talking about now?" Jack forgot that their mother forbade them from climbing roofs for fear of them falling off.

"Come on guys, let's get going."

"Ohh can we go out to eat first? We haven't been out of town since we moved in!"

Ed got into the backseat first then the dog got in from Jack's side behind the driver seat. Jack shoved the animal's rear end over so he could sit down too. Dan scooted over to Ed and laid his head on his lap, then switched again once Jack got in and sat down, he got the whole rear end of the dog on his lap. "Are ya comfy yet pooch?"

All during a very nice dinner at the local Mom and Pop restaurant, the dog sat in the car with all the windows down half a foot. They chose a window seat so they can watch the dog in the car. Dan the man just sat there looking at people walking by and would occasionally walk around the inside of the car, sitting on the front seat, back left seat, floor, and even managed to squeeze into the back window area of the car but held 2 legs down to keep him up there. This is how they found him when they got back to the car and had to laugh. They coaxed him down and he resigned to sit in the middle back between the boys. On the way home they remembered to let him out to relieve himself.

They all had a good stretch on the side of the road and Ed decided to let his own tail out because it was falling asleep with the dog resting on it. He first walked around to the other side of the car, they didn't want onlookers rubbernecking as they drove by.

"Oh that’s much better." Ed said as he straightened out the fur to go in the one natural direction. Dan went right over to Ed and took great interest in his tail. Then started to really get down and sniff Edward's butt, shoving him around and pawing at Ed's tail.

"Dan! Stop! Back! Haha Mom! Call the dog!"

"Daniel come over here." Janet said sternly and the dog reluctantly left Ed and went over and sat down in front of her but looked over his shoulder at Ed.

"What a weird dog." Ed said as he dusted off his tail.

Jack didn't say anything but snickered in his head. They got back in the car and Ed made sure to keep his own tail on the door side. Dan put his head on Ed’s lap again and would try to nip at Edward's tail when it twitched around. Each time Dan got it in his mouth, Ed would give him a rap on the nose. "No."

Dan eventually got tired of trying to get the fluffy thing and fell asleep. Snoring very loudly. They got home and let the dog loose in the backyard. Henry read through part of the booklet out loud to them while they watched Dan patrol the yard.

"It says that for the first day or so he will be naturally curious of the new surroundings and it's up to us to keep him in check for a few days, we should keep him as a working dog, he is not just a pet." He skipped over the pages that had Braille on them, and went to the tricks. "Umm let's see... oh when you give him a command you must use the same tone of voice every time. I guess like monotone, so he doesn't get confused."

Janet stood next to Henry and nodded. "Like, don't laugh when trying to tell him to sit, or lay down and all that. You should say it like, well hang on." Janet pointed right at Dan and said in a stern voice, "Come."

Dan heard and trotted businesslike over to Janet with his head down. Once he got there, he sat then laid down in front of Janet looking up at her, awaiting further orders.

"Oh wow I didn't expect that to work!" Janet said laughing.

The next day came and went but the 3rd day Edward transformed.

The boys were in front of the TV when Edward suddenly clutched his stomach. He gasped and moaned a bit then started to get smaller. His hands and feet disappeared inside his baggy clothes. Jack sat back and let him do his thing. Ed had shifted so many times, it was practically routine. However, they wished it was slightly more predictable. As it was, Ed could go up to 2 weeks without changing once. His busiest day thus far had been 3 times in a day. That was murder on his nerves. This time went as usual for him. It hurt but the pain would pass after only a few minutes.

Dan was irritable and whining so Jack held his collar to keep him from reaching Ed. Soon, it was over, and Ed crawled out from his t-shirt and pants and shook all over. His new fur was damp so without thinking, he rubbed along the carpet to dry himself. He suddenly realized that he had an audience and that the dog was only a few feet away and whining. Ed backed away cautiously and sat up slowly. Dan seemed a lot taller now, making Ed look up at the huge predator's face 6 feet away from his own.

Ed was tense and didn’t move. It had been awhile since he was fearful of beings bigger then him when he's a cat, but this one was a little too carnivorous for comfort. He waited to see what Dan would do with this new information, judging the dog's reaction.

"Ed..." Jack asked, still holding Dan’s collar tightly.

"I think... I think he’s ok with this." Edward said as his tail flicked back and forth and thumped the ground behind him. "You can probably let him go." Edward looked up at the dog who now was _a lot_ bigger then him. He had his claws out, clutching the carpet, and he held his breath. "Ok..." He winced, anticipating the inevitable attack.

Jack slowly let go of Dan and let him walk over to Edward.

The dog was now twice as tall as Ed and infinitely bigger in Ed’s mind. Dan pawed at the floor a couple of times in front of Ed who held his ground and took another deep breath and held it. Dan sniffed at Ed’s nose carefully while Ed's cat-side was having an internal panic attack. Ed gave an unintentional whimper that got caught in his throat.

Dan suddenly barked at him and laid down. Heavily rolling onto his back he looked up at Ed’s gaping face. Ed was extremely startled at this huge monster showing him his fluffy underside, then was relieved that he wasn't eaten straight away. "Oh God I nearly had a heart attack! I swear! My life flashed before my eyes!... not a very long one." He laughed as Jack realized that he was holding his breath too.

Ed had to get up and walk over to Dan's side to rub his belly. It was awkward for Edward to do this on all fours, it was like belly rubbing a huge brown Kodiak to him. "You're my little bear arencha? Yes you are, yes you are!" Ed rubbed Dan's belly till the dog wriggled with happiness with tail wagging merrily back and forth. Then Dan stood up and bowled Ed over onto his back.

Jack was no help as he was busy laughing his ass off. "Your turn Ed! Hahahah."

Jack finally helped pull the dog off and Ed's fur was wet and messed up all over from the dog's tongue, causing new waves of laughter from both. They settled down and started to watch the movie again that they had on pause. Later that night, with Jack's help and the transcriber, Edward wrote nearly 4 full pages on his new pet's arrival and what tricks he planned on teaching him.

Janet came home and saw Ed leaning up on Dan’s back who was also leaning on Jack. ‘A little pile of kids’ she grinned and took the groceries into the kitchen.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Mr. Albert sat back heavily into his arm chair. He spun around a couple of times thinking about the extensive journal entry.

"Apparently our boy really can change his shape when he is extremely far away from here. We never had foreseen the original as a long range wave just yet. Hmm, this simply means we are actually ahead of our own technology. What wonderful news!" Albert hit a small red buzzer from underneath his desk. A man wearing a bullet proof vest and a large intimidating rifle ran into the room expecting some heavy combat. He saw his boss sitting casually at his desk rocking back and forth in his chair and grinning like a mad man. He lowered his rifle and saluted. He wished that his boss would use the intercom once in awhile instead of the panic button to get attention. Mr. Albert merely wanted his underlings to be prepared at any moment, and would regularly test their response time.

"Yes, Sir. What are your orders?"

"Fire Bessy up! This should give the new recruits a challenge. Trying to find a cat in a cornfield. And as a bonus it means that he simply won't have the size and strength to fight back and escape. He'll be no more dangerous then a regular old housecat." Albert said toying with a pad of post it notes.

"The recruits are in the fields on the west side of town. Apparently they had a hit on the sewer lines from the cell phone signal."

"Forget the sewers. Edward wouldn't be dumb enough to be traced so easily. And if he is, well, we've wasted a lot of time and energy on him."

Albert scooted and swiveled his chair across the room till he faced the journals on the other table. His chair squealed wretchedly with every move the heavy man made. "Fire it up, but do not tell any of the recruits. What better way to hone their skills and test their capabilities then to do it in the field. Just make sure the town is covered by our guys from the inside. I won't tolerate another 'magical' disappearing act."

"We should have 'Bessy' up and running within 10 minutes."

"Good, I will see you down there."

Albert leaned forward and left a post it note on the page just before the one he had read. Closing the journal, he got up and left the room, stretching his arms behind his back.

 

 


	7. Pinecones, Pistols and the Precipice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed and Jack are nearly killed and try to escape by navigating the wild river.

Chapter 7 Pinecones, Pistols and the Precipice

 

 

 

Edward stretched his arms in front of himself and then twisted his back to crack it. It popped several lumbar joints followed quickly by a string of pops, not quite as loud, heard like a chorus from the rest of his vertebra and made Jack jealous as hell at Edward's flexibility. Jack caught up to the scuffed pinecone and gave it a good arch in the sky.

"Jeez Jack don't kick them so hard, it's tough enough to find the pinecone in the grass but to look for them in the wheat field? I should make you fetch it!"

"Nope, your turn this time."

"Rrggh." Edward growled and got down on his hands and feet to run faster to reach the pinecone a 100 feet away over the boulders. "Let's see you find this one!" Edward yelled back and gave it his all and kicked it wobblingly into the river. "Oh crap! Didn't mean to do that! Sorry!"

"That's ok, let's just find another one."

Edward climbed back over the boulders to the grassy lane alongside the river.

Several farmer's fences ran parallel to the river, approximately 30 feet away away, and going for nearly a mile. Besides the river, there was not a lot to look at, the usual boulders and crops, and the odd tree here and there.

Edward would occasionally climb one to get a view of their surroundings and make sure the coast was clear. But mainly, he climbed to have something to do as Jack wearily tried to keep up. Every time Jack would get to Edward's tree, Ed would just jump down and keep going, apparently without fatigue. Ed decided to stop climbing them because the game was more interesting.

"Hang on, I think I found a good pinecone, Ed."

"Well, send it on over."

Jack gave it a considerable kick and it landed neatly in front of Ed. After retrieving rouge pinecones for a long while, Edward smiled at Jack's successful precision, he then went to kick it.

_BAM!_

The pinecone exploded right in front of Ed sending him flying backwards, landing flat on his back in the tall grass as if he were shoved down by a bully. His ears rang and his eyes goggled at the sight of smoke rising from the small epicenter.

"Holy shit, Ed!" Jack shouted, stunned, frightened and confused.

"Dammit! What the hell was that?" Edward leaned upwards a little and looked wildly back and forth.

_BAM!_

A tall rock exploded to pebbles and dust right next to Jack, sending him diving face first for cover in the tall grass. "What the F- ?" He put his shaking hands over his head and twisting it to see the rock debris all around him. "Oh shit! Someone’s shooting at us!"

"Ya think?!" Edward called back, not daring to move another muscle.

"Get down!"

"I am! Where the hell are they?"

Another rock exploded on the other side of the river bank. Edward looked over to his right and then twisted his head to look at Jack while still laying awkwardly on his back. He quickly calculated trajectory and relayed it to Jack who laid only a dozen feet away.

"They missed and it hit over there." Ed pointed to the right while maintaining a very low profile on the ground, staying as flat as possible. "That means they are over there I think, it depends on which one of us they're aiming at." A flowering plant on the other side of the river suddenly burst into flames.

"I'm not about to wait around and find out!" Jack yelled back as more and more rocks and plants were suddenly destroyed all around them. The shooters were getting angry for loosing both targets in the tall grass.

Edward rolled over onto his belly and looked Jack straight in the eyes and put his finger to his lips, giving the 'shush' sign. After a few seconds, things quieted down, plants stopped bursting into flames, and the rocks remained solid. The air was thick with anticipation. Jack picked up a baseball sized stone very quietly and mouthed the words, 'We have to swim'. To which Edward shook his head and glared at Jack.

'No!' Ed mouthed back.

Jack nodded and pointed at the river. "Now!" he whispered urgently.

Ed shook his head again but Jack had his face turned to his left. He held fast onto the rock with his right hand and swung his arm out close to the ground, for a horizontal pitch towards the shooters. He threw the rock with all his might straight over to the left side, away from the riverbank. It sailed through the tall grasses without peeking over, and tumbled noisily inside the farmer's field.

Instantly the location it landed burned with explosions so violent and loud, that Jack and Ed could crawl unnoticed to the river bank. They fell off the edge down the now 3 foot drop to the surface of the rushing water. They could just barely hear each other with all the devastating noise happening to their left.

"Edward you have to come with me into the water! We can't climb the boulders fast enough to get away. Don't worry, they will loose us in the water."

"That's what I'm afraid of! I can't swim you idiot!"

"We have to, we have to go right now!" Before Ed could retort, Jack spun his brother around, grabbed a firm hold of Edward's backpack, which was tightly bound to his chest and waist, and heaved Ed into the water with him. Holding onto him at arm's length, Jack swam for the both of them. They both were swept incredibly fast downstream. Edward tried to help out but had immediately started to sink, Jack let go to get a better grip but an underwater rock tripped him and he lost Edward.

"ED!"

Jack swam as fast as he could but couldn't see him, just swirls and bubbles in the current. Jack held his breath and reached down into the water. He felt something moving and grabbed it tightly. He ran into a sandbar and shoved his feet into it to stop himself from going too fast downstream. The added weight helped him stand up and he lifted Edward nearly out of the water by the end of his tail. Ed was thrashing so wildly, trying to push himself up out of the water, that Jack couldn't get a better grip on him with his other hand. His arm struggled to lift Ed higher by his tail, getting his head at least out of the water. Edward coughed and hacked up some of the water and tried to steady himself. He attempted to turn around to grab a hold of Jack's arm or even his clothes to right himself.

_BAM!_

" _AAHHH -_ " Edward's painful scream was cut short as he crashed deep into the water. Deep red blood spattered on Jack's stunned face. His mouth agape, he looked at the severed part of Edward's tail still tightly clenched in his hand. Horrified, he brought his trembling hand close and opened it. He saw it twitch slightly, the hair raised on the back of his neck as he threw it away in disgust.

Jack snapped out of his shock and swam faster and faster going downstream. "Edward! Damn it! Where are you?"

He could still feel the sickly warm substance on his face. He felt a pang of dread but could hear the shooters voices becoming distant. The waters were moving much faster in the center of the river then the sides where Jack had walked before. He looked around and studied both sides of the banks, as well as far in front of him, and even spun around to see if he had swam past Edward. Scanning the boulders and grass he grit his teeth and prayed. An eternity passed. The sounds of the men were no longer heard, nothing was heard.

Then he saw movement on the right side of the river.

'There! Something moved! Was it really there or am I just imagining it? Wait! It moved again!'

"Edward! Ed!" Jack called out between breast strokes. He got to Edward just as he slipped back into the fast current. Jack reached out and lunged at Edward. His fingers touched and immediately clenched around Edward's exhausted body. He managed to drag Ed to the side of the river, but couldn't climb up the steep bank without Ed's assistance. Ed was simply too worn out. Jack suddenly realized that even though Edward didn't show it, their traveling had taken a toll on his little brother even more then himself. So Jack let the slower current take them downstream at a much easier pace.

"It's ok Ed, we're far enough away, they can't get us now." He gazed back at the small lone pinetree in the distance. He could faintly hear some of the men's gunshots firing wildly into the air out of frustration at loosing their prey. Then abrupt silence.

"I gotcha. I won't let go. I gotcha." Jack returned his attention to Ed as he kept them afloat. He reached down into the water below Ed and pulled his bloodied tail up above the waterline, resting it next to his own head and shoulders to keep it up and over Ed's semi-conscious head. Between trying to stop the blood from flowing so freely out of its mangled, shot off tip, and struggling to hold up both Ed and his tail, he himself went under a couple of times before finding a happy medium to back-float the two of them. He basically put Ed over his chest, leaned back to support his brother's dead weight and wrapped his right arm around Ed's upper torso. Jack's right hand held the severed tail end closed as best as he could. Deep red blood oozed out of the mutilated wound. It churned Jack's stomach, and it was harder to hold back his ever rising bile then it was to hold up Ed's 40 lb form.

Jack figured that Ed's brain was probably flooding his system with endorphins to cope with the pain, but it almost made Ed shut down entirely. Edward, half dazed with eyes rolling, started to mumble something over and over, Jack leaned in and tried to make sense of it. "Ahprril tenn too and eight, Apprrl tenne two tous an eight, ape then eight. Aprial. Aprel tent two oh eight."

"What? What are you talking about?" Jack tried to think of what that could mean. 'Sounds like a date or something? He must be delirious.'

"April tenth two sand eight." Edward muttered and his eyelids darted. His quickening breaths stopped short, "Jack help!" Ed gasped while staring past him at something unseen. His green cat eyes slit sharply and then slowly dilated. Edward exhaled, then fainted. After a few tense seconds, Jack could hear him breath, and double checked the chest to see it rise and fall again.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief, and wondered what that was all about. "April 10th 2008? What happened on that day 2 years ago?" He re-positioned Edward's body to back-float on top of him again because Ed's body constantly threatened to sink into the water.

Watching the rippling and moving water, he understood why Ed would hone in on that frightening day. "Oh man... I remember that day now... very well." He looked at his sleeping brother with great sympathy in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I forgot. I can't believe I forgot." Jack held onto Ed as they slowly made their way downstream to the northeast.

"How could I forget?"

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Everyone that Ed knew in Amystriss knows how to swim, and not only that, but they seemed to be able to do it so easily and effortlessly. There was an unspoken grace to it. Young Ed wanted that more then anything.

It was a hot April 10th afternoon in 2008. The first time the Johnson's went on holiday to Henry's uncle's estate since Edward joined the family. Ed had only been with them just under a year and they were still learning new things about him. He looked to be 9 years old, while Jack was 13, and lovin' the fact that Ed could now keep up with him as they played around.

There was a largish pond out beyond the huge yard of the estate that the family decided to retreat to for a reposeful Thursday afternoon picnic. They had decided to leave the dog at the main house because there were too many game hens out in nests all along the property. Dan the Man loved to chase birds, so to keep the ducks and geese happy, they kept him indoors.

"You kids should remember to put on plenty of sun block if you're going into the pond to swim."

"Right, Dad!" The boys said as they got into their swim trunks. Janet and Henry followed leisurely behind with a blanket and picnic basket.

"Oh gross! There's so much mud!" Jack said, hurrying faster to clean his feet off in the water. The kids hurried towards the pond, racing each other farther and deeper into the murky water. Ed, at first, didn't care about the mud, but quickly mimicked Jack's disdain for it between his toes and also rushed to cleaner waters.

"Hey, sun block!"

"It's in the shade! It's ok!" Jack said as he spun around to continue to middle of the large pond. The water became harder and harder to wade through for Ed as Jack was able to proceed a good 60 feet out into the pond.

Ed’s scrawny legs sank into the soft mud and he was becoming immersed. He felt the water push around him like a crushing force. He attempted to move around but he kept sinking. He couldn't breath. Jack turned around and was no longer able to see where Ed was. He laughed out loud and called out jovially, "C'mon Ed! Get out here!"

Janet and Henry finished setting up the blanket and food and looked around to see where the boys went off to. They could see Jack frantically swimming back towards them, sending sprays of water all about. They stood up and called out urgently, "Where's Edward?!"

Janet and Henry ran to the water, wading and half swimming, all three went out to the swell of ripples and ominously large bubbles in the water. Jack arrived there first and sucked in a deep breath of air and went deep underwater. Ed thrashed about uncontrollably, trying to free his legs, but kept sinking into the sticky silt. Jack bent over under the water, next to Ed's frantic body, and was just strong enough to free one of Ed’s legs and had Ed climb onto his back, freeing the other leg. Jack kicked off of the bottom before getting stuck himself, and pulled at the water overhead desperately as his own oxygen was used up. Both of them burst their heads out of the water, gasping and sputtering for air. Ed couldn't stop himself from digging into Jack's back and shoulders with his claws, trying to hold himself up on his brother's wriggling back, Jack needed his arms to tread water. Janet and Henry finally reached them and grabbed a kid each, then turned and trudged back to the shore, panting and hugging their boys.

Ed was frightened and exhausted, gasping for free air for several minutes. He held onto Jack's arm for awhile as he coughed and spit up water. Eventually he tried to talk between sharp breaths and said, "I’m sorry... I'm sorry..., I ruined... all the fun."

Henry rubbed Edward's wet spiked hair and held him tightly. Jack sat breathlessly next to them, holding a hand over his own shoulder to stop the small trickles of blood. Janet wept, and covered up her sons with towels. Hugging them both tightly and kissing foreheads, thanking God that her sons were Ok.

They hadn't gone back to the pond since.

 

Only a month would pass before Ed became determined enough to learn how to swim. He was eventually able to talk Jack into going with him to the public pool down the street from the school in Amystriss. The pool was roughly in the shape of an 'S' that would gradually get deeper on one end of the S to the other, starting at 2 ft for the young kids down to 5 ft, and finally the roped off diving area. It was not huge or fancy but it was what the town could afford and it was a hot spot for the kids in Amystriss.

At that time, nearly the whole town was aware of Ed and his condition and did not think twice about Ed and Jack being there with their helper dog. Ed stalled for time getting their stuff set up perfectly and Dan settled, while Jack wasted no time at all cannonballing in and getting used to the temperature. Ed went around behind a tree and double checked to make sure his wrapped around tail wouldn't fall out of his swim trunks. He tied the belt extra tight and walked slowly to the edge of the pool, looking down at Jack sitting against the side. Ed took a courage building breath and tentatively stepped his thin human leg into the water at the 2 foot end, he was petrified, but only Jack was able to tell. Small children splashed about around them, happily oblivious to Edward's internal anxiety attack as his other leg also dipped into the water. He slowly and faux-casually walked a bit deeper and actually started goofing off with Jack. A ball landed beside him so he tossed it back to some kids off to the left. He calmed down his breathing a little and relaxed. Ed wasn't nearly as tall as Jack so Jack crouched down in the water to be more or less eye level with Ed. They horsed around in the 3 ft area until Ed felt comfortable enough to go to the 3 and a half ft area. Being shorter then average and about 9 years old, he himself was only 4 ft tall at the time. Jack tried not to make it look obvious, but he was watching his little brother like a hawk, ready for anything.

"Ok, this is ok. Not so bad." Edward said as he stood with his hands out.

Ed was now able to try to swim without touching bottom. Jack swam around and retrieved a rouge Frisbee that someone must have forgotten. He swam over to the deeper end and threw it to Ed. It went right past Ed and he couldn't reach for it. It was like the water wouldn't allow him to be as carefree and buoyant as the rest of the kids. He could walk right over to the Frisbee and grab it, but when he attempted to swim it only made him look awkward, as if he were trying to fake swim through air. He went back to the 3 1/2 ft depth and threw the Frisbee back at Jack who had to swim further to get it from the deep end. Edward started to follow but realized that if he couldn't touch bottom, there was no way he could make it over to Jack.

It was apparent that his body, even though it was lightweight as a human, didn't have enough fat to float. So he had what fun he could, and just walked around the pool, envious of the other kids that floated right on by, playing around gracefully. One thing he was excellent at though was doing handstands or walking on his hands around the pool. The other kids couldn't stay vertical long enough. He became tired of simply walking around in the pool-water so they decided to take off for the day. He couldn't move quickly, or actually swim in it, and it was beginning to get to him.

It was more embarrassing the next time they went back to the pool on a day when Ed was a cat. They thought they had to try it again in that form, maybe he'd be better coordinated. The life guards taking money at the entryway were wary at first to let Edward into the pool area. They knew about him but said they were worried about fur getting stuck in the filters. To which Jack reminded them that with all the kids in the pool on this hot day, it wouldn't be Edward's fault for all the hair in the filters.

It was a lame excuse on the lifeguard's part to keep him out, after all, it was an Amystriss pool, and 'Amystriss' was supposed to be synonymous with 'acceptance'. On one end of the pool were several wheelchairs designed to operate in the water. On the deep end, a set of conjoined twins were about to jump off of the high dive. Jack leaned far over to see them from beyond the snack booth, and wanted to cheer their perfect dive into the water.

Eventually they got the working manager over to decide, and he let them in on the condition that Edward can enter the pool but the dog was to stay out, otherwise everyone would want to bring their dog. Jack and Ed reassured him that Dan was a working dog that's on duty whenever they leave the house. So after a friendly wave to the boys, the manager spun around and berated the young lifeguards. Only Edward could hear them and smiled at the swift justice. Jack smiled at Edward's grin and picked a spot under a huge umbrella to drop off their dog and towels. Jack and Ed went over to the 2 foot area like before, starting off simple. Jack stepped in and sat down against the wall with the air in his pockets making little balloons under the water. The dog sat down about 5 feet away and diligently 'guarded' the towels since he wasn't allowed too close to the pool to guard his little nervous master.

Jack waited patiently for Ed to get into the water.

Ed had a cautiously optimistic attitude that it would be alright. He gazed at the rippling water with his emerald green eyes and suddenly the pool looked to be as wide as the ocean and as deep as the sea. "I don't know if I can do this..." his ears went flat and his agitated tail thumped.

"It's a'ight, no worries. If you don't want to swim today we can get outta here and see a movie." Jack started to stand.

"No. I want to... I want to try. I mean, we're already here..." he shrugged.

Jack leaned back against the side of the pool next to Ed, facing outward looking casually around to everyone so the onlookers wouldn’t stare. Ed crouched down and stuck a paw in, waving it around in the water a bit.

"Not cold today." His tail stopped thumping.

"Nope."

Ed could feel the eyes of some of the kids watching him. He inhaled as much air as he could and bravely jumped in. He sank right to the bottom. Jack quickly reached out and pulled him up to get Edward's head above water. Ed shook his head rapidly to get the water off.

"Gah! Fuck!" Ed’s eyes flashed angrily from one onlooker to the next. Most of the kids were more startled at the curse then anything, because half weren’t even interested in the fact that Edward was in his cat-form at the swimming pool. The other half reluctantly looked away and played somewhere else, giving Ed and Jack a very wide berth. Ed held onto Jack's hand underwater as he was kindly making it look like he wasn't holding Ed up at all. Ed looked around to see that there now was no one at all looking at the brothers, and the empty space was now embarrassingly wide, as if they were being shunned or were cursed with the plague.

"Fuck ‘em." Jack muttered at the emptiness.

Ed felt like he might as well try to swim now, it was unlikely that he would go back to the pool anytime soon as a cat after this. He got his hind feet sturdily to the bottom and tried to stand while keeping his head above the waterline. He wasn't used to standing as a cat but the water helped a bit, just as long as he held his breath. When he exhaled he started to sink again. Edward was getting very irritated and felt his face get hot. "Damn it. This is only 2 frikin feet!"

"Calm down. You can do it dude. Just relax."

Edward closed his eyes and steadied his breathing so that his lungs were always half full. He remembered that dogs swim by alternating their pumping legs underwater. He gave it a go. He went out a few feet and it was apparent that he was having a very hard time trying to move his legs and stand at the same time. He pawed at the water trying to get all 4 feet up but he couldn't do it and breath at the same time. So... improvise.

Holding in a lungful of air, it was possible to go underwater to swim for a bit. Satisfied that his brother was getting used to the pool, Jack started to move over and back float for awhile. He knew that his little brother would do better if he wasn't stared at or watched over. Ed stood up for another lungful of air and swam underwater over a bit deeper. The other kids got tired of being crowded over at the other end of the pool and crept their way back to the 3 foot section, closer to Ed and Jack.

Ed smiled at the other kids who in turn smiled back and nodded. All was forgiven on this hot day. He tried now to swim and breath without touching bottom. It was getting a bit easier to swim but he was still unable to get his head up in the deeper water. He felt his lungs burn a little with the stale air. Underwater he saw the 2 foot side of the pool and quickly swam/walked there for more air. He panted for a few minutes and thought about what else he could do for air, retreating to the shallows every time he needed a breath was a poor option. He figured that if in deeper water, he could jump up from the bottom and take in a quick lungful of air before sinking back under the waterline again. First though, he needed to rest for a minute, holding onto the textured wall with his claws to help keep his head above water.

He saw that Jack was floating quietly around, getting closer to the deeper end without realizing it. Ed thought of a good surprise attack. He waded over and couldn't touch bottom anymore and saw that Jack was still pretty far out. He was determined. Swallowing as much air as he could, he dived underwater and swam for Jack.

Jack had now drifted closer to the 3 foot area and got a full set of sharp nails in the butt from Ed. Shocked, he stood up in the water, knocking Ed off balance and spitting out his air supply. Jack shot looks at all the kids to see which one did that. Ed thrashed around underwater and reached out for Jack's legs.

"Gah!" Jack was bestowed with more nails in the calf.

Looking down through the ripples he saw Edward struggle to get back up. Reaching under, Jack grabbed him by whatever he could and swiftly pulled him up. The scruff of Ed's neck was stretched as he was lifted clear out of the water, Jack swung his other arm around and pulled Ed close to support his 20 pound frame and started for the side of the pool.

Sputtering and choking, Ed protested, "Jack, I’m _gachk_ fine. Lemme go!"

Jack went over and set down his now spiky furred brother on the side of the pool. "Are you ok? Don't scare me like that!"

Ed involuntarily shook from head to toe, sending a fine spray around him. The kids started to point and laugh at him. When Ed was finally able to stop, he shivered in the cold air. "Let's get out of here." Ed muttered, silently defeated. He looked down at his own shadow and frowned at the deformed cat figure. Sneezing, he walked around the outside of the pool to his dog. He began shaking his paws as he walked to get the water off so it wouldn't flit about in an ever amusing way but that only made the kids laugh harder at his expense.

Jack got out of the pool too and picked up some toys on the sidelines and angrily threw them just short of the laughing kids. They backed off and went about their own games again after a minute. Ed got to Dan who whimpered at him. Dan was a smart dog and knew Ed was pissed and embarrassed. Dan stood up and picked up his own leash in his mouth, glancing at his little master for orders. Jack grabbed the towels and wrapped himself up and thought of drying Ed off as well but quickly realized that that alone would be the most embarrassing thing for Ed. To be dried off like a pet. They silently went out the gate and started for home.

Ed and Jack went back to the pool again later that year, once things settled and the kids were reminded that where they lived was supposed to be a sanctuary. Ed was fine with sitting by and let his friends have fun, usually bringing stuff to throw at Jack to go fetch and throw back. He would sometimes wade in the 4 foot area as a human but he would never set a foot in the water as a cat.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The water was starting to get a bit choppier and the boulders were getting larger. The small stones carried down the stream now started to hit Jack's legs as they raced faster downstream. He jolted back to reality just in time to see the sheer cliffs.

"Oh shit! I didn’t realize we were so close now!" Jack started to shake Edward and slap his face. "Ed, wake up! C'mon Ed wake up! You need to get up now, Ed!" Jack was panic stricken as he saw the horizon disappear violently downstream.

" _Edward_ wake up you idiot there’s a _fuckin waterfall_ right over there!" taking a huge deep breath, he screamed into Ed's ear, "WAKE THE FUCK UP EDWARD!"

Edward suddenly yelped and punched Jack in the face then went to claw and bite at him in defense. Jack was prepared for this. Still holding onto Ed's backpack, he spun him around to face the waterfall. "Edward! We need to get out of the river. _Now!_ "

"WHAT??!!"

"You have to get over there!" Jack shouted in Edward's ear as he aimed a finger to some rusty cables that crossed the river just 30 feet before the rushing water dropped off the steep edge. Each cable was a clear 2 feet above the raging water's surface and they were attached to parallel cliff faces roughly 40 feet apart, that cradled the river in-between like a huge trough.

Craggy sharp cliffs rose up sharply on both sides of the river just before the drop-off. They had missed their chance getting out while they still had a sloping river bank. There was a single outcropping of jagged boulders sticking up directly in the center of the river, which might be their only hope if they missed the cables.

"Jack I can't, it's too strong." Ed sputtered, trying to stay afloat.

"Ok, I will swing you up and over to those cables, all you have to do is grab one and hold on. I will get the next one." Jack positioned his brother in front and got a good grip of his brother's waist and backpack.

"What kind of plan is that? Jack? There’s only 2 cables crossing the river!"

"Don’t argue! Now on the count of three, one - two - "

"Wait! What happens at three?!"

Before Jack could answer, he flung Edward up and over to the cable closest to them. This pushed Jack underwater for a moment and he immediately started to take off his own backpack, Edward just managed to catch the rusty cable and he held on tight. He watched in despair as Jack went by underneath. He could see some bulky thing move around right next to Jack's body.

"Jack!"

Edward shot an arm down but knew it was far too late. Holding onto one strap, Jack suddenly heaved his loose backpack over the second cable and caught the other shoulder strap and held onto them as handles. All the while, incredible forces were driving him down the side of the cliff as he clutched the backpack straps for dear life. Both of the cables groaned and twanged with the unaccustomed weights. Each vibration was terrifying.

"Edward I'm ok, just get to the north side." Jack said coughing and struggling to get his legs up out of the water and around the horizontal cable. Suddenly the southern rocks where Jack's cable was connected, started to crack.

"Jack! Get over here! You need to get off of that quick! Jack!" Edward screamed desperately as he could clearly see the anchoring rocks start to crumble as deep booming rumbles echoed in the cliffs.

"No! I can't reach yours, and even if I could get onto your cable we both will go down. These can't take that much weight! Listen to me, _get your ass to the other side right now!_ "

" _Damn it, Jack!_ "

"Go!" Jack reached up from his backpack handles and was able to grab onto the cable itself with his good hand. With all of the movement Jack was making, as well as the water that threatened to pull him down off of the edge, the cable danced wildly in the air with violent jerks at the already weak end of the anchor. With an ear splitting thunderous boom, the half ton anchor on the southern side was pulled out of the rock face by the cable and the whole mess fell down, and rolled right off the side of the waterfall.

Jack was whipped around mercilessly and his pack was lost down the huge unforgiving waterfall. He was somehow able to get his other hand around the twitching cable as the water bore down on him. He could not hear anything but the roaring blatter of water rushing past him. Jack's grip began to slip, he held on so tight that his cut hand bled freely over his face. He grimaced and held on all the more tightly.

He was just barely able to see that the water had cut out a narrow cave off to one side, underneath the base of the higher river and behind the falling water.

He dipped his head into the falling water to clear away the blood and started to swing for the cave. Since the cable broke on the right side of the cliff, it was caught immediately by one of the jutting rocks near the middle of the river at the edge of the falls. His cable was hanging him tantalizingly close to the north side where his other cable anchor was still attached.

"If I can make it over to that hollow behind the falls, I might be able to walk over to the north side and climb up." He was able to get into a position where his head was in-between the falling water behind him and the cave in front. All the while, the loose heavy anchor was swinging around, being pushed by the water and bumping into the rocks far below him. This made it especially hazardous to try anything like what Jack was planning.

'I just need to focus.' he thought.

"Jack!"

He could faintly hear Edward yell from the northern cliff face but couldn’t see him. "Edward! What did I just say? Get your ass over there!"

"I am!" Ed almost laughed, now knowing that Jack was still alive.

"Oh... well, just wait for me! I’ll be over there in a minute." He called back.

"Bullshit! I’m not going to just wait around while you daredevil your way over here!" Edward began to slowly climb down the super steep side of the cliff, making sure not to touch the falling water to his left. The force of the river going over jagged rocks gave Edward the screaming heebie jeebies. Pushing aside his very reasonable fears, he made his way down the cliff face so he was more or less eye level with his brother.

Jack still couldn’t see Edward because his head was behind the falls. He started to swing. Painfully. His hand felt like it was on fire and the blood seeped into his clothes. Jack became lightheaded from straining but he had to focus on this task.

'Inhale - lean back - swing forward - exhale - push back.' The anchor clanged loudly on the rocks below and made it very difficult for him to move anywhere, and not just himself in the middle like a knot tied in the middle of a vertical rappelling rope.

CLANG. 'Inhale - lean back – swing forward - exhale -' CLANG.

"Damn it! Move _with_ me!" he said to the anchor.

After a moment, he grit his teeth, leaned far forward and touched the rock face with his fingertips. He then forcefully pushed off of it with his free foot. At the furthest reach of his swing, he ducked forward, aiming his upper half towards the cave. The force of the water pouring down his angled back pushed him right into the rock wall. He grabbed onto a metal bar sticking out from the rocks.

‘Rebar? What the hell? Why is there rebar here?' he thought, locating its man-made ridges and using them to grip onto it better. 'Oh, there must have been something built here years ago to keep people or things from falling off of the waterfall. Ha, ironic that it's gone over the edge too.’ He distracted himself from the roaring river that fell through the air quite menacingly behind him. Threatening to take him down at any moment.

Jack held on to the rebar and shook his head to clear his eyes. ‘The ledge isn't far now.’ He glanced around for another ‘... yes there. More rebar.’ He stuck his right foot on it and inched closer to another piece of metal. ‘This was a bit of cable.’ After a quick tug on it to make sure it was secure, he cautiously let go of the long cable.

Not a moment too soon! The detached anchor was now able to swing freely, hitting more boulders down below. The spot of cable that was caught on the jagged rocks in the middle of the river frayed and peeled away, exposing the rusted out core of the cable. The cable split in two, causing a very deafening crash into the rocky base of the falls.

" _NOOO!_ " Edward cried, knowing that Jack couldn't have survived that fall and was now lost amongst the rubble of sharp boulders and mangled metal.

"… 'No' what?" Jack called back from behind the falls. He had just taken a minute to breathlessly rest in the cave before he could respond to Ed's odd emotional outcry.

"What?!" Edward yelled at the water.

"What were you yelling about?"

Edward gaped at the water for half a minute. "Jack? Where are you?"

"Right here, hang on, I’ll be there in a minute, so sit tight."

"What do you mean sit tight? I’m hanging off the side of the devil's backbone!"

"Why? I told you to stay up there!"

"Yeah right, stay up there while my brother dangles for his life, OFF OF A FUCKING WATERFALL!"

"Watch your mouth!" Jack snapped.

"You watch your mouth! You said the 'f' word first! I’m telling!" Edward started to laugh and shifted the weight of the backpack.

"I’m older! I’m allowed to curse." Jack said back as he carefully hugged the side of the wall and had to tip toe over to Edward. 'This ledge sure did get narrow, I miss that dank little hidden cave already' he thought as he tried to keep his mind off of the deadly moving wall of water just inches behind him. 'It's actually a good thing I lost my pack, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to squeeze through here.'

"Owwww.. uhhh...oh no. Jack... Jack! _Oh crap_... urrrghhhh, Jack!" Edward grabbed a hold of a small rock too hard and it broke off, quickly he grabbed for another. He felt suddenly and dangerously lightheaded. At first he thought it was vertigo, but that was being too optimistic.

"What is it now?"

"I’m... it's..." He started panting, but then groaned in pain. Jack recognized that sound.

"Oh you got to be kidding me! Just hang on, I’m coming!" Jack knew that he had to get to Edward before he started to transform, Edward couldn't possibly hold onto the cliff carrying the pack, or even take it off while hanging onto the rocks. Especially if he is right in the midst of the shift, that much pain, weight and stress would cause him to fall to his death. Jack had only minutes.

Edward's nails dug deep into the shallow soil around the rocks. His foot was shrinking and raising up from the support. It slipped off but he caught a new crevice a little higher up. His other hind foot struggled to keep its foothold but soon that too started to get smaller and smaller along with his other appendages. His pants fell down around his thinning ankles and he carefully lifted one leg at a time so they could simply fall off and down the side of the cliff, alleviating some weight, but not nearly enough.

Jack could now see Edward's cringing face as he made his way over. He noticed something swinging around the rock face back and forth with a sheered end and it took him a second to see that it was the remainder of the cable he was on earlier. Jack reached out and grabbed a hold of it with his good hand and held on as he swung around like a tire swing nearer to where Edward was. He was close enough to hear Edward breathing hoarsely but not close enough to reach him easily. As calm as possible, he said to Edward, "I’m going to come over and grab onto your backpack ok? You just hang onto your shoulder straps so you don't slip down out of it."

"Unnnghh huh." Edward nodded as his trembling body started to get smaller and the pack became painfully heavier for him. It is impossible for any cat to hold onto a cliff face while strapped to any backpack, let alone one as heavily laden as Ed's.

"Ok the second I grab your pack, grab the straps. I just need to get into position... hang on." Jack felt around with his feet for some kind of ledge to steady himself by. He found one only a few inches wide. Good enough. He reached out and said, "Ed you’re going to have to lean over this way just a bit."

"I nnnngggg, _I can't it is so heavy_. Heavy... Jack, it's pulling me down!" his nails scraped the rock wall and he was slipping further down the smaller he became.

"Edward! Get over here now!" Jack demanded.

Edward closed his eyes and grit his teeth so hard they chipped. He held his breath and pushed off of the vertical ridge in the wall with all of his might and leaped sideways over to Jack's out stretched hand. Jack wasn’t expecting Ed to do that so fast and stumbled backwards off of the small ledge. Edward still had his eyes shut tight and accidentally dug his sharp claws into Jack's arm as they rolled sideways against the rocks.

"Aaaggh!" Jack yelled as he curled his arm in front of him with Edward still latched on. Clutching onto Ed's backpack he tried to forget about the nails that dug deep into his arm. "Gnnnhhmm Ed... let go please... loosen the grip please...I have you, just retract the nails." he said trying to keep his cool through clenched teeth.

Edward's convulsions slowed as he twitched and panted, the transmutation was almost complete. He winced at the mass of muscle cramps rippling down his body that had to be ignored. He retracted his claws and hugged Jack's arm instead, resisting the incredible urge to climb up on top of his brother's shoulder and head to keep from potentially falling from Jack's one armed grip. Jack's other outstretched arm felt like it was on fire from the weight pulling on it, but he too had to ignore it and concentrate on keeping a firm hold on both Ed and the metal cable. His feet scraped the sides of the cliff, finding and loosing several possible footholds. He looked down to Ed who seemed to be done shifting.

"Is it over?" Jack felt Edward relax again.

Ed started to pace his breathing as he nodded his head. "Yeah... I think so. I'm sorry about that." he impulsively tried to do a full body shake but was still pinned against Jack and accidentally sent a fine spray into Jack's face. "Sorry, I can't help it. The nerves are all firing, It feels like pins and needles jabbing me all over." he glanced down sideways to the jagged boulders far below. "Oh man, hehe déjà vu... didn’t I do this yesterday? Hang off the side of the school and shape-shift? Man I have timing!"

Jack had to laugh. "You know, daredevil stunts like this aren't my specialty Bro." Jack said as he repositioned his weight on the side of the cliff while holding onto the cable. His arm burned with the strain of holding up himself, a 23 lb cat and a half full backpack. "I don’t have enough strength to climb up and out. We will just have to hang out in the little cave over there. But I need my arm back... hold on tight dude."

Edward let go of Jack's arm so he could grab the cable with both hands. Ed carefully dug his hind leg claws into Jack's leather pants belt, and grabbed a hold of Jack's shirt as best he could, digging in with his nails but curving them into a fist so Jack wouldn't be impaled again. This was particularly tricky for someone without proper thumbs. All the while the backpack was still stuck firmly onto Edward's waist and the straps hung loosely now over his arms. His waist doesn’t shrink as much as the rest of him so he couldn’t get out of the pack's belt. Ed's t-shirt was wrinkled and awkwardly arranged on his feline form. Jack was just glad that his brother was still alive, if a little worse for wear, and began to swing/rappel. After a few moments they made it safely onto the wider ledge.

Once inside the 3 foot deep cave, Jack tied the end of the cable to one of the rebar so it wouldn’t fall out of range. Edward looked up with a sheepish grin like, ‘thanks for the piggy back.’ Jack then peeled off Edward's claws and carefully placed him on the ledge, helping him unsnap the belt of the backpack. He then hung up the pack on a different rebar and sat down heavily. Edward pulled his shirt up over his head and the tumbling water caught it, making it drop off into the falls, he was amazed at how fast it fell.

"Damn."

"Yeah."

After a moment, Jack rummaged through Edward's backpack for some snacks, he was terribly hungry. "Oh haha, I was looking for Dad's beef jerky, all I packed was chips and oranges. Want some?" He proffered some of the jerky to Edward. Ed just sat there looking at the water falling.

"I was never coded for swimming." He said flatly.

"Coded?" Jack asked after a bite.

"Well, they didn’t think that I would need to swim, I was going to be sent to a desert-like regio..." Edward stopped as if puzzled by what he himself was saying.

Jack looked at Edward expectantly, waiting for more, but keeping it casual as if it were just a light chat he said, "Go on, where were you supposed to be sent?"

"Umm somewhere... far... like really far away. They said I would have to learn several different languages for... something. Gah!... _again_ I get a glimpse of my past and then _nothing_! I just remember that it was something important. That no one knew about. I was to be sent there to do... something. No I was training, I was coded for one job." He stopped again and had a nauseating feeling.

He suddenly threw up at the mere thought of what he might remember.

Jack worriedly stared at him then quickly looked away so Ed wouldn't be embarrassed. Taking another bite of the jerky, he sat, thinking about what his little brother just said. After a moment he broke off a piece of the dried meat and handed it to Edward who sat there looking at the half digested vomit. Then looked up at the jerky.

"Jeez, yeah. No thanks, Bro." Ed smiled and shuffled the puke off the cliff with a rock. Then dropped the rock off the edge into the falling water. "We should get going." Edward muttered after a minute.

"Let's just wait a few, I have to re-wrap my hand."

Edward noticed that the make shift sock bandage from Jack's hand was now missing and blood was soaked into Jack's gray t-shirt.

"Jack! Oh crap I’m sorry. Here I am feeling sorry for myself... are you ok?"

"Yeah, no big deal." Jack picked some of the slivers of metal from his palm and washed it out in the waterfall. It continued to bleed, but not as much. He opened up a side pocket of the backpack but couldn’t find anything made of cloth. Then he padded down his clothes. Pulling off his belt buckle he took the small knife out from his sock and shoe and cut the belt in 2 then wrapped it around his hand and tightened it, hooking the belt buckle up to a new notch. Shifting it around and around his hand, he felt a good spot for the metal part to rest against his palm so when he would go to climb again, the metal cable wouldn’t dig straight into his palm again. He then tore off a piece of his shirt and stuffed it between his hand and the belt for much needed cushioning.

"You’re all MacGyver on it. Sorry I threw my shirt off the edge..." Edward motioned at the debris at the base of the falls. Jack waved his hand so he wouldn’t worry about it and Ed eventually started to eat the jerky.

"I remember when we became ‘blood brothers’ do you remember that night?"

Ed grinned, "Oh yeah, we took your knife there and cut our palms then shook hands. Kids stuff. If I recall we did it so that the next time someone asked about me, we could truthfully say we were blood brothers."

"I hated how every time someone asked we had to say ‘No he’s adopted blah blah blah..' it was so much better to make it official, we were, now, and forever brothers. The blood helped make it real."

"I’m so glad you said that 'cause I didn’t think about it that day, but later I was concerned... about my blood in your system..." Edward bit his lower lip and looked worried. He curled his tail around his feet and bent over looking off the narrow ledge at the churning water below. His fur was saturated with the mist from the falls and stuck together in odd angles. But even though he looked a mess, it didn't compare to the turmoil in his mind.

"Well... I never told you this... but since that day, it's kinda weird..." Jack said.

"What’s weird?" Edward faced him and leaned in.

"I umm, I heal like, faster. Like... before then, a cut like this would have taken at least a few days to stop bleeding, but look, it's almost healed. Well not entirely but it did stop bleeding fast enough. I mean, that cable cut deep into my already scraped up hand, but now I’m actually feeling better."

"What does that mean? Are you saying that my blood did that to you? We did that like 2 years ago. Certainly your own white blood cells would have rejected mine."

"I guess they hung around for awhile. Come to think of it, I heard somewhere that every single cell in a person's body is replaced over time. About every 3 years you literally become a new person. I think I remember that correctly. It makes sense, everyone changes a bit here and there over time. One of the guys I went to school with years ago had brown hair one year, then back from summer vacay he had blond hair. Couldn’t explain it."

"So that means that I’m a completely different person from the day we first met 3 years ago." This thought gave Edward a smile. "I’m no longer their 'product'. I’m my own person now. Completely."

"Yeah, that sounds cool. Haha, we should tell _them_ that." Jack grinned, thumbing behind themselves.

"Right... oh man, if all of our cells change then why do you still have mine? Each individual cell can't last that long, can they?"

"I uh... really don’t know. What was that about coding you mentioned earlier?"

"Do you think that has something to do with it? Probably... I guess. I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking straight back when we swapped blood, I could have seriously injured you, from the inside. For all we know, I could be poisonous, or like a parasite that just infects things, or have a bunch of viruses. Since I don't know what I am, I don't know if I'm deadly or not. Man that is scary." Ed looked up to Jack in apology.

"Well, as far as I can tell nothing bad happened from the blood swap, actually, I feel amazing. I may not heal as fast as that comic book character ‘Mr. Xcitement’ but this still beats having scars forever."

"But... I think I should be more careful next time."

They both looked at the mesmerizing falling water.

Jack started again, "What if... what if your cells or DNA or whatever changed mine, then they reproduced and split and mitosis and all that. What if I’m now part cat as well? That would be interesting, hehe."

"Oh, I didn’t think about that." Edward looked up at Jack who was trying to be playful, but was clearly deep in thought. "Should we tell someone? Like Mom and Dad? Or would that just freak them out." Edward said.

"Ha, maybe. But they’re pretty understanding. Anyways, let's just sit here for a few more minutes, I’m still a little dizzy."

"You and me both, I could use a Pangal Blaster."

They sat in silence for awhile. Each thinking of different things. Edward was trying to reach for that sliver of memory that had just flashed tantalizingly close in front of him, even though it seemed quite terrifying. Jack was thinking about what he was going to say to their dad and how they were going to make it over to his construction site unnoticed. Save for the rushing water, it was quiet between the two.

Then there was a distant shout, and another. The boys couldn’t make it out what the voices were saying but they could guess. A siren went off in the lower valley. "I guess they found my backpack." Jack said with a shrug.

"Crap."

"Yeah it's about time to get out of here. Well... I think it would be a hell of a lot easier to climb if I didn’t have your pack on as well."

Ed reluctantly nodded and helped Jack rummage through it to see what they could carry.

"Knife yes, hair dye? Well, we have access to water and you're a cat now..."

"I changed my mind. That is just too red for my tastes." Edward pointed up to Jack's hairdo.

"No problem. I can put the jerky in my back pockets, I know you can't eat much of anything besides meat when you're a cat."

"So, I guess it's up to you if we need juice boxes or granola bars. Or not, since we're so close to the Mess hall. Probably don't need the pepper spray. Or this crap, why did I pack this?" Edward held up a broken watch.

"'Cause it was Dad's old watch, here. I got it." Jack put it on his wrist.

"Hmm, did you want the pepper spray, Jack?"

"Nah, those guys don’t seem to be the close contact fighting kind of guys. They'd rather shoot us from a distance."

"Yeah... cowards. I could do it all in close contact."

"Haha yeah, you need to show me that trick you pulled on the rifle dart guy at our house. Bam bam bam down. That was amazing."

Edward suddenly looked very ashamed and said, "Let's just get going."

They could hear many more men shouting down by the base of the waterfall, moving downstream to collect the debris.

"We have to wait till they leave."

"Right..." Jack said, trying not to attract attention from the searchers below.

"Hang on, if that cable had held up you, me and the backpack with all the stuff why can't we just tie it to the end of the cable and pull it up once we're at the top? That way we won't have to loose anything." Edward said looking at the scattered supplies that they might need later.

"Oh yeah, and as a precaution, we could put the cable through the belt loops in my pants so if I slip and fall we would only go to the bottom of the cable when we hit the backpack at the end." Jack snapped his fingers. "Brilliant!"

"Ok, better make it a good knot then, don't want it slipping, we should do a sheepshank?" Edward wiggled his paw in the air at the cable.

"What's that?"

"I dunno exactly. I heard it on TV once, I was hoping you knew."

"Nope."

"Oh well, just double knot it then." Edward shrugged. "But for Pete's sake don't put it in a big girly bow."

"Hahah damn I was just about to. We just can't have nice things, humph." Jack crossed his arms at Ed who just rolled his eyes then looked at the searchers below.

"Boy do they look busy down there."

"Yeah, they must want to work fast while the sun is still up, it's already behind this cliff. Look way out there on the other mountain side. Do you see it?"

"Kind of, it's hard to make out past the water, but yeah the shadow of this cliff we're on. It's beautiful. I never really looked at our surrounding mountains before, they're so far away you can't really see them from town. I love the colors."

"It almost looks blue doesn't it? Over there." Jack stuck his arm out and water started to splash inward at them.

"Agg, yeah nice... like we aren't wet enough." Edward did a whole body shake and sent a fine spray about him. Leaving his fur spiking all over in every direction but down. "Not a word, Jack."

After a few minutes all of the men were gathering again at the construction site once the debris was collected. The sun was getting low on the horizon and the tall rock face shaded the entire site. The sky was getting dark a little too early.

Edward held onto Jack's shoulders and wrapped around his neck like a heavy wet scarf.

"Ed could you at least stop swishing your tail in front of my face?"

"Oh sorry, it has a mind of its own." he had to concentrate on keeping it still.

"I’m glad it stopped bleeding. You know that part they shot off was actually moving?"

"What? Eww that's creepy." Edward said looking at the hairless scarred stump. Jack got a good firm hold of the cable and jumped out from the small ledge and was able to slide over sideways to the northern side of the waterfall where it was relatively dryer. At least the threat of being pummeled by the relentless water was gone. The climb up the cable was noticeably much easier now, the balanced weight and a full stomach helped.

Ed prodded his tail stub under Jack's chin. "Creepy."

"Tell me about it! It was way weird. It didn’t move on its own last time we tried cutting it off at its base. Sorry about that by the way, I really thought that would work." Jack said between hand holds and grunts.

"It's ok, I would have looked weird as a cat with no tail. So yeah no worries. The end should grow back in 2 more shifts like last time."

Jack stretched out his free hand and was finally able to reach the very top of the cliffs. Edward obsequiously jumped off of his shoulders and stepped back, giving Jack the room he needed to scoot on top of the cliff. The river still raged below to the left of them as it flung itself off the side, apparently surprised as hell to have the land drop off from underneath it. The water shot off with such force it continuously hovered nearly 2 feet from off the side as it arched downwards. The boys had had enough of the cliff and were extra careful to stay on dry flat land.

After a good stretch they looked around the small area of rocks and tried not to kick any off of the edge to alert the workers to their location. Then Jack pulled up the cable and untied the backpack from the end. Putting it on he had to let out the belt straps as far as they'd go so he could fasten it around his own waist.

"Jeez Ed, your skinny butt should eat more. You're thinner then a Malibu Betty."

"Again with calling me skinny, you're beating a dead horse." Edward said.

"I know, I hate horses." Jack made kicking motions, "Especially skinny ones."

"I'm fine, you're the one with the fat ass." Edward nimbly jumped alongside, on top of the boulders, pausing occasionally to have a look around.

"Watch your smegging mouth!" Jack wagged a finger and kept on trekking. "There should be a path on this side going on down to the site," gesturing at the trees beyond the huge rocks at the edge of the cliff. "They had to get up here somehow to put up the cables and safety cage."

"Was that what all that stuff was? Huh. Brilliant, they really built it to last." Edward said looking down at the remains of the metal net that had previously occupied the waters at the top of the falls. Now rusted sharp and jagged, it was strewn about below in a haphazard way. Ironically making the waterfall even more dangerous. "I found the path over here. It's pretty overgrown but still clear where it leads. C'mon, let's get out of here." Edward said waving over Jack.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It must be fate to put this chapter up on the 14th anniversary of my cousin's death. June 19, 2003. He was just 17 and died saving his little sister's life from a huge fast river. I was there, and I will never forget his sacrifice nor his good life. He was a sweet soul, kind and generous. Honestly, the greatest person I'd ever had the privilege to know. You were taken too soon from us, Kyle. I miss you, today and always. 
> 
> Needless to say, this was a tough chapter to write just a few years after the accident. I hope you all stay safe if you're doing *any* activities on the water. Never swim alone and never in a current. Even if you know how to swim, it can still take you under in a heartbeat. Please, be safe.


	8. A father found and a missing mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ya find something new out every day!  
> For instance; Keep giant magnets away from Ed!

Chapter 8 A Father Found and a Missing Mother

 

 

"I'm coming, I'm coming, Ed. Where the heck do you get all that energy from?"

"Quit whining and get over here, I see the site."

From beyond several huge boulders as big as houses they saw the foreman's trailers in a half circle aimed away from the boys. From their vantage point they could tell that nearly all of the men were now converging on the small pile of what used to be Jack's backpack. One of the men carefully went through the contents looking for a name or any hint as to who it belonged to. Jack and Ed made their way down a little slope but didn't want to be spotted by any of the men so they made a huge arch around to the northern most point of the construction site.

There were machines and cranes littering the grounds everywhere as this was a site for gathering a particularly beautiful vein of stone, but it was hard to access. Henry was in charge of mapping out the future dig sites and keeping the men in line. He was well respected and liked among his coworkers for being a fair man that gets things done. He works alongside them instead of over them like a dictator, and that earned some strong friendships. So when some workers found out who the backpack belonged to, it made it that much harder to break the news.

Jack and Edward reached an abandoned crane next to a huge pile of metal scrap from the previous mining operation 30 years ago. First, the company had to clear out the now rusting metal and wood, and replace it with reinforced steel beams inside the tunnels.

The crane's low hanging arm was affixed with a scuffed black, wide and flat cylinder on the end of a long chain. Resembling a huge hockey puck hanging at the end of it. The 'puck' was about 15 feet above the ground.

"The seat's still warm, they must have just left it here in mid move."

"Yeah, maybe." Edward jumped up onto the dashboard inside the cab and looked around. "Jack, it may be easier for me to go get Dad then it is for you. No offense, but I'm much better at this, especially like this." He held up a black paw and half smiled. "Just wait for us here, I'll bring him over then we can talk about what to do next."

"Right, stay put." Jack crossed his arms and sat heavily in the seat of the cab.

"I've got to go disappear into some shadows, b-r-b." Edward jumped down and went down a slope towards the main site, then when he got closer he started to zig zag his way over to the main group of men, scanning this way and that for his dad, Henry. Wherever possible, he would walk underneath the equipment and peer out. He trotted over to a trailer that was closer to the river and finally spotted him. Even though his back was turned, Ed could tell that it was Henry because he was the only one sitting down, and he was cradling the torn backpack. Edward sighed heavily and crouched down. Inching his way around to get into Henry's view, he remained hidden save for one worker who saw him but thought nothing of a black stray cat wandering around the site.

The sun was going down fast. The flood lights were switched on and nearly blinded everyone whose eyes were already accustomed to the dark. It startled the hell out of Edward as he stood there bathed in full light in front of Henry. Henry's gaze shot up and he saw Edward standing there not 20 feet from him in a spotlight. But before Henry could speak, Edward quickly jumped back from the light into the shadows and put his finger to his mouth and 'shushed' him intently.

Henry's jaw hung, no more then a few hours ago he had received the message from one of his coworkers telling him that he needed to call the boys immediately. That there had been some kind of emergency and that he was not to call the house phone but their cell phones instead. So right away he tried calling Jack's cell phone, and then Ed's cell phone but neither went through due to a malfunction. Of course Henry couldn't know at the time, that the phones were shorting out while they were strapped together and floating down the sewer line. At first he thought it was a prank his sons were pulling on him, and ignored it for a short while but it nagged at the back of his mind. He waited for some other contact from them, and soon feared the worst. So when the crew gave him the tattered remains of his son's backpack he thought both of his son's were dead. But suddenly here was Ed, right in front of him unscathed. He tried to make out what his youngest son was doing there 'shushing' him.

Then he figured it must be pretty damned important so he picked up the backpack and put what was left inside. Waving aside the helping hands of his coworkers he said, "I just have to call the boys again. I'll let you guys know what's up."

He was eventually able to make it past concerned coworkers, over to his own trailer next to the base of a steep hill. Edward followed along, keeping a very low profile as he had no idea where Henry was going. Once Henry got inside the trailer door, he made a hand motion in a circle. To anyone else this would look like he was just swishing flies but Edward caught on and went around back. Henry locked the door to the small camping trailer and opened up the window on the other side facing the steep hill.

"C'mon Ed, over here. There should be some pipes you can..." Before he could finish, Edward leaped from the ground in through the window and landed next to Henry on the counter, slipping a little on the papers strewn about.

"Dad hi. Sorry to scare you, Jack and I are fine. Well, kinda."

"What's wrong? What happened, where is Jack?"

"He's fine as long as no one sees him. He's over there hiding in the crane."

"But they'll need a crane to haul the rest of the metal scrap up tonight."

"Crap, we need to get him before they find him."

"Edward, what's going on?"

"I can't explain just yet, grab what you need from here. We may have to leave town tonight."

"Leave town? Where is your mother?"

"I hope she hasn't gone home yet." He said nearly out of breath.

"Edward, talk to me!"

Henry stared at Edward's green eyes. Ed bit his lip and then looked hurriedly at the door. They both could hear the men starting up the equipment again. Edward looked back at Henry and his dad could now tell that it was best just to listen to the kid and get going. Henry left the trailer after a few minutes and waved at all the men to come over. They had been waiting at a respectable distance outside for any news about the boys. Ed snuck out the back window again and watched from behind the trailer.

"I just got a hold of Jack and Ed, they are alright and said that they had accidentally dropped one of their backpacks in the river upstream and wanted to give a heads up. I'm going to take off early tonight to make sure they stay put. Y'all can keep on working here, everything's fine. No need to call the cops or anything. I do want to say thank you all for getting the stuff together. Bye guys." Henry smiled and waved as he toted the torn backpack over in the direction of his truck to drop it off. Once out of sight, he turned and followed Ed up the slope. "Hopefully no one called the cops because they would just get in harms' way. Let's get your brother and pick up your mother. Then we can decide what to do."

Meanwhile Jack sat, bored as hell in the cab of the crane facing the opposite direction from all the action. He had to sit at the edge of the chair and awkwardly twist around to see anything. Last year Henry had taken the boys to a different construction site just outside of town and showed them around. He also pointed out the crane that he operated and how easy it was to move. Jack turned back around in his seat to face the control panel.

'Well here's the tall lever that pushes in and over, it unlocks the cab so it can spin around. But first I have to turn it on wiiitth... this green button and key here.' There was a large control panel with a long paragraph scratched off and written in its place was ‘aka driver’ Jack realized that that was what moved the whole unit around, but he just wanted to spin the cab around.

The crane started up just as the other machines at the site started rumbling. Jack timed it just right so he could remain unheard.

'Ok and now where's that other lever to spin it. Oh right, I have to hit the clutch.' The crane rumbled into action as it slowly spun around to a 180 degree turn. Jack then eased it down and applied the brake once his partial revolution was completed. He turned off the mechanism that spins the cabin and arm but forgot to turn it off completely. The large flat black circle hummed softly as it swayed slowly back and forth like a pocket watch pendulum, nearly putting Jack to sleep.

Jack leaned back, comfortably facing the main construction site from the top of his hill, he had nearly full view. He didn't however, see Henry and Edward make their way up to the crane from behind the pile of scrap.

"We're almost there." Edward said trotting alongside him and over to the easy slope of the hill going up, confident that there was no one watching them at that point. Then a strange feeling came over him. "That’s odd, I feel kind of... light headed. Like..." Edward slowed his trot to a walk and looked quizzically up at Henry. "Oh weird. Do you feel that daaaaAAD!!" Edward instinctively spun upside-down in mid air to land feet first on the gigantic black cylindrical _magnet_ that swayed slowly from the crane arm.

"What the?!" Henry yelled up at Edward who now was forced to lay flat against the powerful magnet. It had lifted him 15 feet in the air and refused to let go. Edward struggled to free himself, barely able to move, every muscle cramped up painfully tight.

"Unnnngggaghhh! Turn it off! _Turn it off!_ " Edward yelled plaintively at Jack in the cab.

Jack was stunned. Henry spun around and saw who he thought was just some red headed punk in the cab and proceeded to cuss them out. "Who the fuck are you? Turn off the magnet you stupid son-of-a-bitch!"

"I'm trying! Shit! What button do I push?" Jack started switching levers and punching buttons. Gears ground, warning lights flashed, but the magnet was unaffected.

Edward's whole body ached as the fur receded and fell off only to be picked up again by the magnet. A furry pattern splayed out in a spiraling shape. It felt as if his arms and legs were drenched with ice cold water and had a flamethrower burning him at the same time. He couldn't clearly see what was happening. 'What's going on?' He tried to think clearly but this forced magnetic transformation was twice as painful as a normal one. His flattened hands and feet slid outward as his limbs grew to his human length but were unable to push off from the powerful magnet. He grit his teeth till they bled and closed his eyes tightly. Hoping that the nightmarish pain would end soon.

His fingertips curled slightly with all his might and the nails clawed helplessly at the cold hard magnet that hummed indifferently at him. He could feel his exhausted mind race with thoughts that were confusing and maddening. He felt it would be easier to die now then to live with this much pain any longer.

" _jack_ " He gasped for air.

Henry ran past the scrap pile to the cab and instantly recognized Jack and made an apologetic face as he climbed up into the cab and found the right button and punched it. Both Jack and Henry saw Edward fall flat on his back onto the grassy hill and tumble down it in a heap, caught on a small pile of pipes. Henry jumped down off of the crane's huge wheel tracks and ran down the hill. He soon found Edward sweating and panting for air. He began to change back into a cat immediately after the magnet was shut off. By the time Jack got there a moment later, he was already done.

"oww... that sucked... oh, Hi ya.." he said weakly and went limp. Henry picked him up and put him over his shoulder, patting him gently on the back. Jack went around his Dad and held Edward's unconscious head in his hands, Ed's fur was damp with sweat and he trembled in the cool night air. Jack carefully opened up one eye at a time and checked his breath to make sure he was ok. Then gave him a rub on his head, messing up the fur then straightening it.

"I'm sorry Jack, I didn't recognize you. Please forgive me.." Henry looked at his guilt ridden son.

"No I'm sorry, Dad, I shouldn't have turned it on. I wasn't thinking." Jack's nerves were still on edge and he tripped up in the grass. Henry slapped him on the back.

"It's ok, it was an accident. He's fine now. We should get your stuff and go to a good safe spot where you guys can rest awhile and tell me _exactly_ what happened that has you boys so scared."

They could hear a couple of the minimum wage guys on the bottom of the hill where it met the cliff. Then saw the glow of flashlights moving up and down, inspecting every shadow for the shouting and noises that they'd heard. They got lost in the dark and gave up searching for the night, eventually making their way back to the main site.

After a few minutes of rummaging around in the pitch black area, Henry found the spot that he and his men used to eat their lunches at. A pretty sizable flat boulder made a makeshift table and had some lawn chairs pulled up to it. Jack could smell the burnt remains of an apparent bonfire that had been set right in the middle of the 'table' sometime in the recent past. He dusted off a largish area of the monstrous boulder and Henry placed Edward on it.

Ed was muttering and moaning softly in his sleep. All Jack and Henry could discern after a few minutes of listening was, "A mink car is better than a boat of car... I want a shoehorn with teeth. I've got a fang." He bared his sharp teeth at them in a tired but goofy grin. Then he angled his head and looked intently at Jack. "You know what? Your mom's alright, she's an angel. But me on the other hand... I'm a self called nowhere.." He seemed sad then fell asleep with a sigh.

"What was that all about?" Jack asked Henry.

Henry just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I think he's still a little buzzed, the blood rushed one too many times, it's kicking in some kind of reaction in his brain." Henry stroked Ed's fur to calm him down as he slept. Ed started to purr softly now so Henry went and sat down next to Jack a few feet away, both were facing Ed as he lay peacefully, twitching his ears.

"So... what happened."

"It's complicated." Jack wrung his hands a bit.

"You're not in trouble with me, I'm listening. Tell me everything."

Jack looked up at the sky, silently tapped his knees and then inhaled. "Ok first, there were these guys that came to school today, weird guys like from some action movie or X-file. Ed flipped out in class and told Mr. R that they were after him. Mr. R covers for us and right after the men leave, Ed turns human in his office. We leave Dan with Mr. R and we leave the school, go home, pack and oh yeah, we thought it would be a good idea for us to dye our hair so they don't recognize us."

"Oh that's why... I thought you turned into some rabid child on us."

"No no... well, not yet." Jack gave a demented grin then continued. "So we dyed my hair but we couldn't do Ed till he turned cat again because you remember last time, with our weird little 3 toned surfer dude. So yeah, we pack up and leave for Maggie's house right across the street 'cause she's gone on vacation and left us the key to water her plants. Next thing we know we see Mr. R march Dan right up to our house and the men in the car aren't there."

"Which men?"

"Oh yeah yeah, well, while we were still at home Ed sees this odd blue car parked at the end of the street and these two guys sitting in it and they don't move, and they don't get out. That's why we had to go to Maggie's. They were watching our house. And after we left Maggie's we started heading south to go to the safe house but we see Mr. R and Dan going to our house. Ed and I went to go get Dan after Mr. R leaves, but Ed doesn't see that the men are missing from the car. Ed goes straight for the car so I went for the house. I get Dan out of the backyard and we start to head down the street south again, then this asshole shoots Dan and he goes down in the street."

Henry's eyes went wide, Jack held up his hands and waved them "No no, Dan is fine, he was just tranquilized. So Ed nails the guy with the tranq. gun and he goes down instantly, I don't know where the other guy was so we booked it over to Maggie's and left Dan there inside her house, Ed made sure that the coast was clear and that they didn't see where Dan was. So we take off for the park and then made our way here. Oh yeah, Ed was saying some odd stuff today. Like when we were in the river he said he wasn't 'coded' for swimming. I asked him what that was and he said he was supposed to be sent to a desert or something and learn a new language."

"Coded? And sent to some desert? That sounds..."

"Yeah I know, like something important dealing with his past right?"

"Wait a minute, you boys _were_ in the river?"

"Yeah well we had to jump in, Bad guys were shooting at us." Jack could see the shocked look on his dad's face. "We're fine, fine... well... Edward got shot a little."

"Shot a _little_?! Where?"

"I picked him up out of the water to keep him from sinking and the bastards shot his tail off, the part I was holding on to. Come to think of it, you shouldn't see the scar anymore."

Jack scooted his chair over to the rock table and leaned over Edward and inspected the tip of his tail, moving the fur to one side and checking it out. Henry got up to look too.

"Yeah, see? You can't even tell anymore, it's just like last time. It took just a few transforms to heal it. He was human this afternoon, and when we were climbing up out from under the waterfall he shifted back to a cat again which healed it for the most part, just had a bald tip until the two shifts just now with the big magnet. Those finished the healing, but of course now, he's too out of it to care that his tail is back. All of these shiftings can't be good for him." Jack put the tail back down and pet his brother who "murffed" at him.

Edward rolled over onto his back and then side and gave a happy sound. "Someone keeps moving my chair." Edward sighed. "Am I awake?" He looked up at the stars and squinted suspiciously at them.

"No, now go back to sleep." Henry said softly.

Edward nodded then after only a moment he started to snore quite audibly.

Jack continued his story, "So yeah, we had no plan b, so we decided to keep heading here, to ask you what we should do. So here we are."

"Have you contacted your mother?"

"No, Edward had us throw our phones in the sewer."

Henry looked at him quizzically and Jack held up his hand and waved a 'don't even ask'.

"Is there anything at the house that could lead them to Janet, or here?" Henry paused and thought about it. "No, tonight's her shift at the quilt shop. The ladies go pretty late talking about their quilts."

"Um Dad... I forgot to mention this, well 'cause... I didn't actually see it for myself but Edward said something else that was disturbing. He said... that they would have blown up the inside of our house at like, 6 o'clock today."

Henry tried to piece these bits of information together. "They blew up our house... at 6?"

"No sorry not blown up, he used the word vaporized. Just the inside."

"Just... the... inside. Of our house." He nodded slowly at Jack. Jack reluctantly nodded back. Henry leaned heavily against the boulder. A long moment passed. "Did Edward say anything else?"

"Not that I can remember but he has been acting differently, like how he knocked one of the bad guys out with just 3 punches, or like, when he told me about the house he said it so matter of fact-ly that it scared me a little. I mean, what happened in his past? Talking about 'coding', the desert, I can't make sense of it. Oh yeah, and the freakin' eagles."

"Eagles?"

"Oh crap I forgot to tell you yesterday. So right after Ed destroyed the school's shed he said he saw eagles in it and they just ignored him. When I got to him they flew off. I know he told you about the gray cloud right?"

"Yeah. You said it moved around him."

"No, it kind of... went inside him. It surrounded him as he hung there, then poof, it was gone."

Henry thought about the strange, and quite frankly, unbelievable story Jack had told. Were it any other story-teller, he probably would not have believed it. Edward slept soundly next to them as if he had never slept before. Henry paced back and forth, then pulled out his cell phone from his tool belt. Flipping through the numbers, he found the one. The battery was starting to die and the digital readout blinked innocently at him and illuminated his face. Jack could see the tears welling at heart breaking intervals. 'What if she went home...'

Blink Blink Blink.

"You boys head for the safe house. I will get your mother and meet you there. It's getting late and we can't stay here forever, one of the guys will come over here eventually for a smoke break." After a minute he shut his phone again. "I should call using a land line, they are harder to trace then cell phones."

"Oh yeah, Ed said that too. I didn't think about phones with cords."

"Um, I just saw it in a movie last month." Henry said faintly sheepishly and turned away. "Stay here and watch him. I'll be back with some Pangal Blaster for you both. Is that your bag?"

"No, I've got Ed's, we should fill it back up with some food."

"There should be plenty at the safe house, I restocked it every 6 months to keep the food fresh. And don't worry about someone finding it, soon after I bought it from my old boss he burned all the records of the sale and made up one saying that it was dismantled along with the rest of the model homes. He was a good man, rest his soul." Henry paused then smiled reassuringly at Jack. "It'll be good."

Henry reluctantly left the boys at the rock and went back to the site, taking a different route. He was successfully able to sneak back over to the main office building. He closed the blinds to it, locked the door, and searched around the cramped and dirty old room until he found the phone underneath a pile of original map blueprints for the first tunnel. He first tried Janet's cell phone number, on the off chance that she decided to use it today, but as expected, it kept ringing until the automated answering machine message came up. He hung up and tried again and again but still no answer. He pulled out his cell and found the number to punch into the greasy buttons on the old office phone. He made sure it was for the right quilting store, 'Life's a Stitch'.

It rang a few times, "Hello, Ondine here, how can I help you?" Said a very old, groggy, but kind voice at the other end.

"Hello, yes this is Henry, I was wondering if my wife was still there?"

"Oh no, she left hours ago. We ended up closing the shop early tonight."

"Was she alone when she left? Did she go straight home?"

"Let me think. She said she had to get home to make supper so I suppose if she's not there then she might have gone to the Dinner Bell to pick up some groceries."

"Ok thanks, if she contacts you or any of the ladies could you have her call my cell phone right away?"

"Oh sure sure. God bless."

Henry heard the soft clack of the phone being hung up. He checked his watch, 9:10 pm. 'She left at about 7. If Jack and Edward are right, that means that those men trashed our house an hour prior. I need to get there now. Dammit why doesn't she ever use her cell phone?'

Henry punched a wall and it made an indent in the old soft plaster. He then tried to think of any of their neighbor's contact numbers but he couldn't keep his thoughts straight. He checked his pockets for his truck keys and pulled them out.

Averting the eyes of his colleagues, he made his way over to his own personal trailer and grabbed several bottles of Pangal Blaster, a flare gun and a crowbar. No one tried to stop him when he left the site. Most of them were simply puzzled by his actions and decided to wait till he left to discuss it. Henry trudged up the hill and faintly heard Jack and Edward having an odd conversation.

"You know what, Jack?" Edward said pointing at a circular shape in the contours of the rock he laid on. Then abruptly placed a snail shell in the center.

Jack leaned over and politely listened to his brother rant some more. He considered asking Ed to act his age but, he probably is, for the very first time. 'He is just a little kid afterall, I keep forgetting that.' Jack thought to himself.

"Jack. This rock. This rock right here. Has one eye." Informing.

"Hmm, does it now?" Amused.

"Oh yes. Right here. This is a Cyclops rock. Just one eye you see?" Convincing.

"Yeah I can see that." Confirmative.

The snail had enough silliness and crawled away. Edward rolled over twice and stood up, then proceeded to walk very slowly around the perimeter of the huge boulder table. Jack could faintly hear Edward counting.

"29, 30, 31 annnd 32." Edward then sat down and smiled triumphantly at Jack.

"32 what."

"32 footsteps. That's how big this is. Hi Dad!" Edward yelled at Henry standing befuddled behind Jack.

Jack twisted around to see their dad holding 2 large bottles of Pangal Blaster. "I think you need some of this, Ed. You've lost a lot of energy and I think you may be dehydrated. You too, Jack."

"Thanks."

"Yeah! Thanks Daddy!" Edward said happily.

Henry poured some into a wide mouthed coffee mug for Edward to drink out of and gave the rest to Jack who didn't realize how thirsty he was until he started drinkin.

The three of them rested and drank for a few minutes. Henry sat, nervously bouncing a leg and fidgeting with his bottle and lid. He set the bottle down on the ground and was silently debating about what to do now. Edward kept drinking until his head fit inside the mug then he pulled it out and asked for seconds. Jack obsequiously filled it up again and Edward continued to guzzle it down as fast he could.

"Your mother..." Henry started after a few minutes then stopped. He looked at Edward who seemed to mentally pull himself together almost immediately. Henry smiled then shook his head. 'He always did heal quickly.' He thought, then looked at his palms as they rubbed fitfully together. "Janet is not at the quilt shop. She left for home at about 7. Edward... do you... can you tell me anything about.." He stopped and looked painfully at Edward.

Ed sat down and closed his eyes in concentration. "If she went home at 7, then she might have missed them. I think, I think that they would have gotten what information they could from the house before they vaporized the inside. If they stuck around afterwards... then... then they..." Edward started to tear up but held it in. "Dad, I need to get her back." He grit his teeth and stared at his father.

Jack felt his eyes get hot and realized he was chocking up too. "Dad we can help get her back. I will do whatever it takes. What are we still doing here?"

"Jack take Edward to the safe house." Henry said sternly.

"But!"

"No! You take your brother to the safe house now. I will find her and we will meet you boys there. I can drop you off when we get closer to that part of town. From there you will go straight to the safe house, no exceptions! Do not stop and stay out of sight. I will find your mother, she will most likely go to Maggie's when she sees that our house is..." He shook his head, then got out some stuff from his bag. "Jack, here's a flare gun with 2 shots. If you get into trouble, shoot one in the air wherever you are and I will find you, use this in the meantime." He gave Jack the heavy crowbar. "I've got one in the truck too. Now get your stuff and follow me. Come on Ed."

Edward emptied the mug in 3 huge gulps and picked it up in his mouth, jumped down off of the rock and handed it over to Jack as they left the break area. The three of them reached the truck and climb in quietly so no one from the work site could hear. Henry put a finger to his mouth and 'shushed' the engine of the old beat up truck so it wouldn't backfire this time, with the other hand he turned the key and it started up without a fuss. The three of them breathed a sigh of relief. Edward sat in-between them and they drove for a short while. The sky was faintly illuminated by stormy pinkness on the horizon.

"Dad it's dangerous to drive with the headlights off, you know that right?" Jack said as they were jostled around on the unseen path.

"Yes I know, it's just till we get out of sight. Oh, Jack, can you reach behind your seat? There should be a plastic bag back there."

Jack found it and put it on his lap and opened it. A folded t-shirt and a pair of pants and sandals. Jack laughed. "How long has this been in here?"

"Umm about a year, it occurred to me that he might need them one day. I just hope you can still fit in them."

"Thanks, Dad." Edward said.

Henry flipped on the headlights and they saw that they were driving through a field. A stalk of wheat was caught in the front grill and waved back and forth at them.

The passive movement of the plant in the grill distracted Edward for awhile about where he was. The radio blurbed quietly to itself as they went down the now dusty gravel road leading to the Pritchett farm as they headed back to the heart of town.

Edward laid on the seat between Jack and Henry and put his head down, absentmindedly staring at the wires under the dashboard and the cigarette ashtray. Remembering the time when Janet talked Henry into quitting smoking for the kid's sake. She always was looking out for people, making sure they were safe and healthy.

'She saved my life. She was like an angel, she saved me from the street. Took me in, healed my wounds. Now I have to save her. Shes...' He thought and put his paw over his eyes. He had a flash of memory about that day. He subconsciously knew that he shouldn't force the memory to come, but to let it ease in. As if it were going to anyway, and he was merely observing. Soon, he was participating. Here it goes again like waves of emotion.

The smell of dried blood. Bad cologne and sweat.

'A hint of a sound. Maybe it was a voice? And another? I'm angry. I can... I feel really angry and anxious, but it's not time yet. Play dumb.

Waiting.

He loosens his grip, did he let go? It's now. I have to do it now. I can see his face, I reach out quickly and... he's bleeding? I hit him!

I hit the bastard again! He accidentally pulled off my collar because he held it too tight and yanked it off! I can fight back now! It's my only chance. I have to do it now or I will never be free. Nailed his jaw! Now for the head, I've got to get a better stance or he could...

AAGGGHHH DAMMIT! My ribs broke! That son of a bitch kicked me!

I feel the car swerve and I hear a screeching sound, I think it's the wheels. We are thrown around the backseat. I attack again and again. Claws and teeth. No! He's grabbed my neck and pulled me off. He punched me in my side and again and again. I go limp. He starts strangling me... I can't... I can't breath. Damn-it it hurts. He's thrown me against the door. My leg is now burning and my head is throbbing.

_I'll kill him!_

I get up and go for his face, clawing, biting. His eyes are bleeding and what's happening now? I hear the screeching get louder. A furious shout. And suddenly I feel like I'm flying. Weightless, and then I hit the ground with a sickening thud that nearly knocks me out. My head feels like it's going to explode. The black car drives on for a second then screams to a halt.

The earth rumbles under my feet. A dirty white curved wall hits the top of my back and I land hard on the hot black ground, tumbling over and over. Finally my body stops. Those filthy bastards in the white car didn't even slow down! I can hear the other black car rev back up and drive away. They think I'm dead! I have to stay still. Several minutes pass and I can hear a loud rush of wind headed right for me. I need to move out of way of it or it will crush me. I just manage to crawl to the yellow lines but I can't go any further. Wind howls in my ears as it flies by without a care. The ground smells awful but I can't pick up my body to get away from it. I can see yellow stripes going off in front of me. They go off into eternity, these wide filthy yellow marks.

Red? Where is all this red coming from? A wall of wind blows by me and a yell. A loud obnoxious sound shows up just to blare at me then fades away into the ringing in my ears. My whole body aches and burns.

I have to move. I must live.

 _I don't want to die_.

Another loud wall of wind. They don't hear me. I can't... I have to move.

Nothing wants to move, I think time is passing but I can't be sure.

It's getting cooler out here. I'm getting cold.

Sometimes I can faintly hear horns. I raise my head, begging for help, but they ignore me and go around. More horns. That color of red is starting to make me dizzy. Oh... I think it could be blood because it smells awful and it is sticky. Who is bleeding all this blood? It can't be me because I don't feel anything. There's so much of it. It's the most beautiful color of red. I can see a lot of brilliant green speckles just over there around that brown thing. It would be so nice to touch that color.

The ground shakes again and another wall of wind whips around, but it's getting harder to feel it. I don't care. I don't care anymore. I just want to look at the beautiful green and red. Lay on my black bed with the yellow lines. I wish I could move my head more then this... I can't turn my head, I would have loved to see the deep blue sky just one more time. I love that color most of all. Blue. I never really saw how wonderful it is before today.

Everything's getting very blurry.

It's hard to hold on... why am I here anyways. What was I doing just now? I don't remember who... I am. Is that bad? It's hard... my head hurts so bad I can't think. What is that? There is something moving over there and it's waving at me? It's so tall...

What's going on? Who are you? I can't hear myself... can you hear me? You are getting bigger. What are you doing? I'm scared! Please don't hurt me!

Why did it get so dark now? I'm moving. I can feel you holding me. You're not going to kill me? Who are you? You feel so warm and sweet smelling. Your sad smile is very beautiful. Oh no, I must be getting you dirty with all of that red stuff I’m covered in. I'm sorry...

Oh wow... That blue! It's the sky! I can see it now!

 _Thank you!_ Thank you so much I wanted to see it before I died. Thank you. If you can hear me, thank you...'

 

 

"I remember that day she saved me." Ed said softly but they didn't hear him above the sound of gravel crunching under the truck tires.

 

'I will save your life.'

 

 


	9. We're All Prisoners Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed's mother, Janet, finds herself in a strange cell along with another Amystris resident. A furry family member is not far away in another cell.

Chapter 9 We're all prisoners here

 

 

"Why is it so dark in here?" Janet asked innocently as she was led down a wide and long poorly lit hallway by two men. On both sides are numerous small rooms separate from each other with 3 feet of space between. The rooms themselves were made of a strong clear plastic compound which is almost impossible to scratch or stain. Each wall of plastic had several rows of holes 2 inches in diameter 30 across each wall in a straight line at the bottom middle and top of the rooms. They reeked of bleach and dust, which are the only differences between these rooms and prison cells.

Each one had a basic toilet, hand sink, and bed. No form of entertainment or link to the outside world in this dark hall. At intervals down the stretch of hallway were several black domes hanging from the ceiling holding 2 surveillance cameras in each one facing the opposite direction so nothing was out of sight. All were turned on but only 2 were being monitored by the room at the end of the hall that took up the space of 5 of the cells. There were originally 20 cells but the last 5 on the right side were converted for the security personnel space. A buzz echoed throughout as the three people walked down the hall from the double doors on the opposite end.

"Where are we going?" Janet said as she tried to hold her woozy head up. Each man held onto her arms firmly as she was led down the middle of the room in handcuffs. The men turned her to the left and in front of one unoccupied room that was close to 2 other rooms that were occupied. On the right side of the cell they now stood in front of, was a 30 something year old man that sat dejected in the corner of his cell, glaring at the armed men. His knees were drawn in and he hunched like a gargoyle at them from the floor.

One of the men unlocked the cell door, and both led her inside the cell and placed her on the bed. She sat dazed and off kilter to one side with a quizzical look on her face. They left her and closed the barred door behind them.

"Here, give me your hands." The shorter man said.

"Why?"

"I'm going to take the cuffs off."

"Oh, who is that?" Janet squinted to see the gargoyle 20 some feet away in the cell next to hers. The shorter of the two men ignored her question and jingled the keys. Janet was still lightheaded, but held out her hands through the door and they took off the cuffs. She looked around at the other rooms and wondered why she was arrested, and then wondered where most of the other convicts were being held. A part of her mind told her that she must have been arrested for taking the drug that was in her system. But, she never remembered taking such a drug willingly and couldn’t recall actually going through the procedure of her own arrest.

"Wait, so what did I do wrong? Don't I get a phone call?" she asked them.

"You're not being arrested, and you aren't going to be harmed Miss." One said as the taller of the two men left and brought her back a set of fresh sheets, a change of clothes and some toiletries along with a paper plate with a half dried sandwich on it.

"Hey where's mine?" Her celled neighbor asked in a snide voice.

The shorter man banged the door to the cell on the right. The occupant smirked at him and faced the wall again. Janet rubbed her wrists and shook her head, trying to clear it like an old etch-a-sketch.

"Oh man, what did I take? I feel all tingly." Janet's fingers played a bit in the air and she gave a chuckle at the men who simply left the room and locked the door behind them followed by a loud buzz. They could faintly hear the men's boots fade into silence. After a few minutes Janet started to see a bit clearer and didn't realize that she was staring directly at the man in the cell next to hers.

"What?" The man said in an unfriendly manner.

"Oh sorry, it's just..." she wagged a finger. "Don't I know you?"

The man sat upright and finally looked her in the eye. "What? Do you know me from out there? So, you are not with these guys?"

"With them? No. Are you?"

"Hell no. So... why are you here?" He asked, genuinely concerned now.

"Beats me. The last thing I remember is that I was getting groceries out of my car and then my back starts to hurt real bad. Suddenly I'm here, being led down this hallway. Where is this building at anyways?"

"I wish I knew. I got here in much the same way you did. So where are you from."

Janet felt that telling the truth would be wrong, after all, her town is supposed to be a secret from the world. 'But, those men were already there so the secret must be out.' She mulled a bit and decided to simply name it, and not give a location.

"I'm from a town called Amystriss."

"You’re kidding!" The man perked up and jumped up off of the floor.

Janet was simply shocked at what she then saw. "You... you have a tail!" She said in a way like, 'what a coincidence that you have one too.' Even though it was her kid and not herself. She immediately felt very embarrassed for pointing that fact out to him, as he probably already knew about it. She blamed the drugs.

"Oh yeah, that." he glanced behind himself, then grinned at her embarrassed smile. "And now I think I recognize you too. You’re Jack and Ed’s mom right?"

Janet nodded dumbfounded at him. Then pointed at him again. "Frank North Junior! You run that store on the drag downtown! Next to the Dollar for Dollar, right?"

"Well... ran. I’ve been here for awhile, so I’m sure the place has closed by now. Has it?"

"Oh um, I don’t know. Jack and Ed would know, they loved your store, 'North to Southpaw' right? That’s where I would pick them up some nights. You had quite an array of stuff in there."

"Yeah, I remember those kids. Ed always wanted to see what was new in stock, even though he and Jack were righties, I guess they liked the other stuff I had there. The red and white leftie Thunderbird is a big hit."

"So why are you here? Do you know what's going on, Frank?"

"Well as far as 'here' is concerned, we could be on the other side of the world for all I know... I suppose we could watch the water flow down the sink to tell which hemisphere, clockwise, counter-clockwise that kinda thing. As for the guys that run this place? These guys are messed up, they kept trying to do stuff to me, like they put me in front of this huge machine they called 'Bessy' and turn on tons of switches, monitoring this and that. I swear they named it right 'cause it sounded like a mooing cow. Anyway, they'd would strap me down and aim it at me. I don’t know what they were trying to do but whatever it was didn’t work."

"What did they aim at you?"

"Well, it's all kind of a blur really. Every time they take me out of my cell they shoot me up with something. I think they called it H2G2. Then everything gets muffled but I can feel my brain still working... ever try Ether?"

"Ether? Oh lord no, is that some kind of drug?"

"Yeah, I had an interesting past... anyway they would start off by taking me through several metal detectors. There were various machines and whatnot but the biggest one had huge cables hooked up to it from other places, and all of 'em hooked into this big ass turbine in a huge room. It looked like a factory or warehouse. About the size of a soccer field I would say. They had 2 huge vertical cones with wires going around them, and at the top end of the cones were big metal spheres, about 2 feet across for the diameter. I was put in between them and they would pull down on this handle sticking out from the wall. I remember someone telling them to put it up to 1.21 Giga-watts. A loud hum would shake the floors, walls, everything for a few minutes then it would power down and they would turn the switch off. Then they would do all kinds of tests like, draw blood, cut bits of my hair and measure my circumference."

Janet sat down and just stared at him. Frank could tell he needed to explain more but shrugged. "I don’t know what to tell you, they would take a freaking tape measure and measure the length of my arms, legs, head, tail and torso. Then they’d compare it their clipboards and frown at me. Then send me back to my cell. There was one time when they did that whole stupid routine 5 times in 1 day. Each time they would turn it on, turn it off, measure and frown at me. They’d say stuff to each other but I couldn’t understand them. I think it's another language, but none that I’m familiar with."

"You’re bilingual?"

"Well, a little, I know 3 languages pretty well, and 2 just enough to know the basics and what I learned from boy scouts. It was like a hobby for me in college."

"Oh. Wait, go back. They did that to you 5 times in 1 day?"

"Um yeah about 3 months ago. But they didn’t stop doing them, they just cut back to once or twice just about every day since. I wasn’t there for those. After living in a cell you get used to the quiet and can feel the ground vibrate when they turn it on."

"5 times... in 1 day... then once or twice almost daily." Janet felt she knew what that meant. She got up and paced her cell a few times.

"Well, doesn’t matter much now, we aren’t getting out of here any time soon. Might as well settle in. Personally, and I hope you don't mind, but I like whistling in the dark because your own worst enemy is silence after awhile." Frank shrugged his shoulders again and decided to make his bed now that he had someone who might care.

Janet watched him for a minute then sat at the end of hers facing the hall. Then she noticed that all the cells had numbers on them above the doors. She looked up above her door and could faintly make out the number 3 on it. She stepped back and saw Frank's door had 4 on it. Then she went to her door and tried to look down the hall and counted the rooms and their numbers.

"There’s 15 rooms." Frank said, not needing to see what she was doing.

"Oh ok. I don't see anyone else down that way. Are we being held for ransom? At first I thought we were arrested for something but this is no kind of prison that I’ve ever heard of. Those guards spoke our regular English so I’m pretty sure we are still in the states. I don't remember them ever asking me if my family could pay a ransom. Why did they kidnap us? I'm not important enough for them to go through the trouble... but never-mind ransom, I hope the kids are alright. Did you see or hear of my family being taken as well? Are we the only ones in here?"

"Umm no, they aren’t here. But, a while ago there was a dude that was brought in here, black hair, kind of gangly looking, he was put in the cell right across from yours, in number 13. He seemed to know the men that put him in there and just yelled cuss words at them until he went hoarse. Wouldn’t talk to me though. Just kept to himself. And the next day... well, I think it was today actually. It's hard to tell daytime from night when you can't see the sun or have a clock to go by. So today they take him away, he didn’t even say a word when they drugged and dragged him out those doors. Gone for a few hours I think, then about a half hour ago they brought in that poor thing. Been lying underneath that bed ever since."

Janet followed his finger to the cell directly across from her own. She squinted to make out what it was. "Dan!" She yelled suddenly.

"What?" Frank sat up.

"That’s my dog, Dan! What is he doing here?"

Frank shrugged. A largish, brown husky mutt grunted desultorily as it woke up, then shuffled his body over so he was now laying down facing Janet and Frank. He cocked his head at them but he still laid there, mad at the world. He raised an eyebrow at her.

'Why is that woman talking to me?' The dog lifted his head and grumpily looked through the door bars at her.

"Dan! Come on out boy! Maybe he’s sick? Why on Earth is he here?"

'Why on Earth is she calling me _Dan_?' He thought as he tilted his head on one side then the other. 'Doesn’t matter I guess. But, why do I suddenly feel happy to see her? I’ve never seen her before in my life.' The dog looked away from her and crawled up from under the bed and walked sleepily over to lay down again next to the door but facing Frank. Looking back and forth between them, wondering what was up.

'He doesn't recognize me though, just that woman. Who is she anyway?' He thought about it for a few minutes and waited for them to talk. 'Maybe I will get some clue from them, I can't very well _ask_ them now. Thanks to you Albert, you reprehensible asshole.' The dog attempted to growl at the mere thought of Albert but all that came out was a raspy gag. He stopped and gaped.

'What? What fresh hell is this?!' He was shocked and pissed.

The dog tried to bark, to yell, to howl, to say _something_ but all that would come out were breathy coughs and gags. He angrily paced the cell, gritting his teeth. 'That asshole! He took out the voice box didn’t he! Of course he did. Why wouldn’t he?' He bared his teeth and narrowed his eyes.

Janet was taken aback at having her beloved family dog growl at her. "Maybe it's not Dan, he never growled at me or anyone without good reason. I can't shake the fact he looks exactly like him. I don’t understand, Frank."

"I don’t either, Janet."

'Janet? Janet. Where do I know that... of course! That’s Janet Johnson! Oh how could I be so stupid?' The dog got up and started to wag his tail excitedly at them and attempted to bark a few times as a greeting.

"Oh maybe it is your dog."

Janet was happy at first to hear he was ok but suddenly disheartened because he was in a dark lonely cell, right across from her. "Oh boy, how do we get out of this?" She asked the dog sympathetically.

'I didn't recognize her in black and white, that’s Janet, and that guy must be Frank North from Amystriss, and this body must have been her dog before...' He stopped and sat down again. A sad look came over his face. He gazed up at her from across the wide hallway then up at the security camera that hummed at them. He watched with great sadness as she slowly slumped down the bars of her cell and sat on the floor, looking at him.

'Oh I’m so sorry Janet. I think I know why we are here now. But even if I _could_ tell you... I’m not sure I have the heart to.' He whimpered and put a paw out to her from between the bars of his door and padded it on the ground gently. He looked at her with soft brown soulful eyes.

'Please just know, I did my best to protect you and your family. I truly am sorry for what, I think, is going to happen. I can't stop it now. I will try to protect you as best as I can, I just hope they haven’t gotten to Edward. He is the only one that can save you now. It's too late for me though. No one will ever come for me or know who I am... or was...' He sat down again and sighed despondently.

"Frank, what else can you tell me? Why are we here, what else do we have in common? We're all from Amystriss, and for possibly the same reason, we're here in cells... my son loves your store and you both have umm... tails."

"It’s ok, I’m not embarrassed by this tail as some people would probably be. I see it as a wonderful way to distinguish myself from the masses. I do understand why people like Edward would want to hide it. I’ve had to contend with a fair amount of flack for mine. I can only imagine what else he’s had to deal with as a _shape-shifter_. People must have thought he was some kind of monster in your old town. Everyone gets brainwashed by movies. Just cause they change shape, makes them go on bloody rampages. Where did we get that idea from in the first place?"

The dog listened in and silently nodded to himself. 'I can just guess what they would think of me when they find out I’m not their doggie. I only hope they understand my side of the story. If they ever hear it.' He sighed again, keeping an ear to their conversation.

Frank spoke up again, "There is one other person here that also has a tail come to think of it. It was a young looking girl. Very odd way about her. She didn’t seem to walk as such, she seemed to float and was extremely graceful in every move, but there was something unnerving about it. She didn’t move like a normal person would. Always looking around, it felt like, well, as if she was learning everything about you just from watching you. Come to think of it she sort of reminds me of your boy Ed, heh, in a good way." Frank grinned, "She seemed very smart for her age too. I’d say she was anywhere from 10 to 16, but it's hard to tell with her. I’ve seen her lingering around. Some days it would be before a test but not after, or after the test and not before it. I don’t know where she went, but she seemed to only be there half the time. They had some other strange things going on there too. I heard like a loud screech one time and some large feathers on the ground. You know, like brown and white speckled. About a foot long. Had to be a flying bird 'cause they had that peculiar arch to the primary feather. I was able to snatch one after one of my tests so I’d have something to look at. You have no idea how boring it gets sitting in here by yourself. Course they saw me from that camera up there and took the stupid feather away. Like, what could I do with a feather?"

"Sharpen one end and poke someone?" Janet chuckled a bit.

"Ha, maybe, didn’t even think of that. Watch a lot of prison movies do ya?"

"Nah, so what about that girl you were talking about?" Janet soon figured that Frank was just dying to talk to someone and that’s why he sometimes rambled and got off track so easily.

"Oh the girl? Yeah she’s a little over 5 foot, really short hair that looks like it was dyed to look like round patches of brown and black on a background of blond hair, like a line of spots going from front to back. It looked pretty punk if you ask me. She always seemed to be following a large guy in a suit that everyone called 'Sir'. It was hard to tell what was English mixed in with that weird language they all spoke in. She didn’t speak much though, but when she did, it was very silent and distinct. She meant what she said and kept it short, an' you could just tell that at any moment she could kick some serious butt. I don’t know what it was specifically but it was just the way she walked and talked. I wouldn’t want to mess with her."

The dog nodded, 'Yeah, she is a quick one. Hmm, she’s probably the first one that was on to me.' The dog snuffed, changing his mind, 'No, she would have turned me in long ago if that was right. They found me out just yesterday, and had me in this body in mere hours. They've gotten pretty efficient... course this must have been child's play compared to that other girl. Umm, nearly 5 years ago I believe, Albert made a big deal about the date being correct. August 20th 2005, damn, has it been that long?'

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Years had passed since Nina awoke in a brightly lit room with 6 people standing around her, all wearing identical white outfits and masks. The first thing she noticed was the pain shooting violently up her left side. She tried to open her eyes wider but they hurt because of the blinding white light flooding the middle of the room. She squinted and cried a bit as she attempted to turn to her side. There were IV’s attached to her arms and many other unidentifiable devices all leading to her through cables, machines, and needles. Noises were heard, and though quiet for the most part, were very unsettling.

She struggled to recall how she got there but was drawing a blank, she tried to move again and realized that she was being held down in place by two of the huge white figures. Her eyes started to adjust to the bleach white lights only feet above her head but she couldn’t focus. Although there was no reason for the room to appear blurry to her, she had an extremely keen sense of sight, it was the morphine and H2G2 being pumped into her system to keep her docile. She turned her head to the left to try to see why her left arm hurt and almost laughed because there were so very many instruments holding it in place and sticking out of it. There was no mistaking why her arm would hurt so badly. Two of the figures ignored her attempts to move and continued poking it with long thin needles. Injecting God knows what into her arm.

Nina sneered at the figures and tears started to well in her eyes.

She turned her head back around to the right, there was no reason to watch them work. It would only make it hurt more. Somehow she knew that. She closed her eyes tight but the light bleed through her eyelids and shown a throbbing dull red. Trying to control her breathing, she hoped that she would stop crying. These bastards wouldn’t let her go even if she bawled loud enough for them to hear her from outside. So instead she hoped to show that they couldn’t tame her and bend her will. Thoughts drifted by in her head but they had no origin. Flashes of trees and grass on a calm beautiful day. Her breathing slowed down a bit. The tears stopped. An image of a graceful person appeared, smiling and kind. Arms opened up to receive her in an embrace she knew would be warm and comforting. The love that she felt in her soul was coming straight from that person.

'Who was it? Who was it just now?' As soon as the image appeared and the woman grinned it was gone. One of the tall white figures wiped her face and interrupted her thoughts. The shock made her jump but the hands holding onto her arms clenched as fast as she did. The needle that the tallest of them was holding was jammed into her arm much further then anticipated and she gave a loud angry cry.

"FUCK!"

Everyone in the room gasped and immediately stepped back from the table she laid on. The hum of the machines suddenly ceased and was replaced by a loud click and tense whir. The nearly inaudible beeping became louder and louder and quickened as fast as her heart raced. The string of curses she was going to utter got caught in her throat.

Two of the figures stepped slowly back to the table and took out the long needle that was left sticking straight up out of her arm.

She winced and looked at them expectantly. They all stared back and then slowly and cautiously went back to work. It was obvious that they were very disturbed by her outburst, they clearly didn’t expect her to speak. They were stunned and frightened, and _that_ is exactly what worried her the most at that moment.

Why? There was no answer for it. These people had her in restraints, drugged and helpless. Why were they now so scared of her.

Struggling to understand what was going on, she heard a small noise from the other side of the room to her right. She took one long look at the white figures to make sure they weren’t going to suddenly jump on her, then turned her head. She could just barely see from the corner of her eye, another table about 8 feet from her own. There, laying dejectedly on its side, was a large black and tan spotted cat. She noticed that it was laying on a bloodied sheet that held a few of the strange instruments that were connected to her own table. Examining further, some of those instruments and lines were leading into her own body from that cat's.

She suddenly realized that the cat must of had extremely invasive surgery right next to her, perhaps no more then an hour ago. Though the large soft brown and black speckled cat was still breathing, it was in poor condition. It made an attempt to move and gave a small pitiable cry. One of the figures went over to it and quickly wiped the blood off of the face of the cat. Then with a flashlight pen it shown into the cat's eyes, then off, then back on. He put the penlight away and looked at a small monitor sitting next to the operating table. The cat growled as menacingly as it could but it turned to a sad fluidic gurgle. It coughed and started to seize up. Its weak legs kicked feebly at the cords sticking out of its stomach.

Two of the figures went over to assist and brought out small paddles.

Somehow she knew that the poor cat couldn’t be helped. Tears fell freely onto the sheets she laid on. She didn’t know how to help, and frustrated and sad she cried out to the poor thing. But there were no words she could say. So she cried louder for the blighted thing. Though she didn’t know it, she was attached in more ways then one to the cat. It was the reason she was here, it was now a part of her. Feelings of great loss and aching sorrow loomed over her as she watched the figures reluctantly try to save the cat's life. It was not their top priority to rescue the original host. The girl was now the only thing that mattered to them.

One of the white suited figures put a light hand on her trembling shoulder, this one was not to restrain.

Slowly rubbing her shoulder in small circles, the hands felt warm to her. She held her breath and looked up and squinted to see the face looking down at her. The man's face was in front of one of the bright lights but she could tell he had black hair and sharp features. He looked young, ill fed and skinny. He frowned at her and the other cat, mouthing the words 'I'm sorry' to her. He rubbed her shoulders carefully as she tried to stop crying, and fell into the hands for comfort. He let go of her just long enough to carefully pull out the needles, tubes and instruments from her body, placing them next to her on the table. He walked in-between her and the feline and gently held her as she sobbed softly into his white coat. The others murmured notes and procedures to each other as they turned off the machines.

She wiped her eyes and leaned over to see the other table from beyond his thin embracing arms. She could see the cat's tawny gold speckled fur, matted with blood in small circles. The eyes were closed and the other tall figures slowly took out several IV's and metal prongs that were stuck about all over the poor thing.

They turned the largish cat around and she saw that it had once been a very beautiful feline, with brown and black stripes that turned into the muddled spots she saw on the sides and belly. Now the tawny gold fur was sullied with oil and dark red patches, matted down with a few shaved areas around the stomach. It was a horrible thing they did to the Savannah.

The Center smuggled in a couple of wild Servals from the black market, but were only successful in breeding one ideal hybrid candidate for their experiments from the litter of Savannahs.

When they were finished using the feline and it's body, they had no need to keep it alive. So, two of the white clothed figures covered the remains of the cat and put it into a black bag, placing it into a plexiglass box for cold storage and taken out of the room. Nina closed her tearful eyes tightly as the skinny guy with the black hair injected her with a strong sedative for the incubation period. An excruciating process, that he wanted her to simply sleep through.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos are love!


	10. I'm Not A Wizard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Ed's trip to the library.

Chapter 10 I'm not a wizard

 

 

 

"Ok, I think this is a good spot to drop you boys off. You both are to go straight to the safe house. Do not go anywhere else. Ed, I know you can see better at night then Jack so lead the way alright?"

"Sure Dad, just be careful. If you see anyone or anything out of place, just take off. Fact, it's best if you go through Maggie's yard and check out the street first before going to our house. We had left the lights on before we left, so if the lights are out then the house is completely empty inside and you need to get out of there fast. But while you're over there, I mean, if you can, could you feed Dan? We left him at Maggie's, he's probably hungry by now."

"Oh yeah, here's the keys to her place. I can repay Maggie for whatever we give the dog to eat, she's probably got some hot dogs or something in the fridge." Jack dug around in his pants pockets for the spare key to their neighbor's house.

Henry noticed that his teenage boys had to grow up a lot in just one day, just to stay alive. "Here's a flashlight from the truck but I think it would be better if you didn't use it, you don't want to draw attention." Henry said giving them the flashlight anyway. "Use it only when absolutely necessary. Jack do you know how to use the flare gun?"

"Umm yeah, I think so, you just put this thing in the cylinder then snap it shut, then point it in the air and pull the trigger."

"That's right, how did you know that?" Henry said with a raised eyebrow.

Jack almost said that it was because he remembered that his dad used to have a hand gun in a locked cabinet for protection. However he had gotten rid of it nearly 3 years ago. Jack did not know at the time why he had sold it but now thought it was due to Ed's arrival and it might be a tender topic so he opted out of that explanation and quickly thought of a different one. "Some movie we saw with flare guns. Seems like we get all of our survival skills from movies!"

"Well, just remember this is real life, so be on your guard. If you see anyone suspicious, go to the nearest house and get in, in any way possible. I don't think there's a soul in town that wouldn't help one of its own in need."

"Right Dad, we will see ya at the safe house. Take care." Jack said and hugged his dad.

Henry leaned forward, picked Ed up and hugged him in turn. "I love you boys, be safe." He said then reluctantly turned around and left them next to the park. He climbed back into the truck and headed north to their home street with the headlights off the whole way. It was safer for the boys to stay away from the house, in case the men were still there. Still, Henry hated having to leave them.

"Ok Ed, which way do we go from here?" Jack asked as he waved at his dad.

"Well, that way is south... "

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, the windmills are south, can't you hear them?"

"No, you can hear the windmills from this far away? That's incredible."

"I can always hear them, but at night like this, they seem to be clearer sounding, there's almost no traffic to drown them out. So yeah, we should head that way, there should be a small area with the older buildings and houses, mostly old people so they go to bed early, it would be easier for us to travel unnoticed."

"Well, you are the one with night vision, lead the way." Jack said and gestured for Ed to get ahead of him. The boys walked for a few minutes, behind most houses and over the occasional fence. They were able to stay away from the streets where it was more likely for them to be spotted. At each of the regular height fences, Jack would pick up Ed and drop him on the other side because it was easier then waiting for him to climb up and over the chain link.

"Oh hey, I didn't realize it but just over there is where Jen lives." Edward said.

"Jen from school? Oh right, you guys were talking after class today."

"Hey um... Jack? Is it ok if I go over and..."

"And what? Say hi?"

"Well, I was thinking. I feel like this is the last chance I will ever have to talk to her. I can't shake that feeling. I would hate to leave and never tell her thank you."

"What are..." Jack started then thought about it. It was true. After that night they would probably never set foot in the town again, so long as those men were still looking for Ed. "Fine, I guess. But make it quick. I'll cover you. Just don't tell her anything, that way she won't get in trouble."

"Well, Jack, it's not exactly like any of us knows where we are going to go after we all get to the safe house. So there's nothing to tell her about that. But don't worry, I won't let on anything." Ed cautiously walked low to the ground over to the edge of the street. Jack was waved over and followed as they both crossed after the last car on the street passed by. Once at her house, Jack waited for Ed outside on an old chair on her porch, keeping an eye out for any passerby's. Ed went around back to her bedroom window and awkwardly picked up a small rock and threw it at her windowpane. Completely failing to catch any attention, he managed to leap into the flower box just outside the neighboring window and reach over to Jen's window. Then carefully stepped onto the narrow sill.

From his diminutive vantage point all he could see in the room was a large bed off to the right side, a huge pile of clothes covering most of everything on the left, and a dresser in front of the window with many old photos of Jen and an older woman whom Ed assumed must be her mother from the resemblance. He smiled when he saw his notebook from class earlier that day, placed in the center of the dresser and opened to the page that Allie had drawn in and noticed several other doodles that she must have done afterwards. There was a odd looking lava lamp next to a stack of homework she completely failed to do. One whole wall was nothing but different styles of hats and head-wear all in a grid as if on display at an art gallery. Ed was surprised that he never noticed that she often wore different hats to school every other week.

He knocked and waited. Jen flipped on her nightstand light and went to her bedroom door. Ed waved at her from out the window but the reflections of the room blocked him out. Jen opened her door groggily, saw the empty hallway, shrugged, and shut it again. Flopped back into bed.

"Urgh. Jen! Psst!" Ed kept knocking until she located the sound. She saw a black moving form outside the window and thought it was a peeping tom. Suddenly she realized that she was only wearing a t-shirt and picked up and threw the closest thing to her at the window with full force.

The window opened outward and knocked Ed right off of the sill.

"Ow! Jen? What the hell?"

"What? Who the hell are you?" She pulled on her robe that was hanging from her closet door and picked up her softball bat on her way to the window. She hoisted the bat and peered out. "Ed? What are you doing here? What happened?"

"What happened?? You threw a shoe at me! Fine way of saying 'hi' dontcha think?" Edward stood back up, shook his whole body, and jumped in through the window. He landed on her long dresser and slid on some papers. "Whoashit." He steadied himself from knocking over the photo frame. He then took a closer look at the photo of her and her mom, subconsciously studying it, he thought the woman looked faintly familiar to him. He then looked up to Jen and smiled warmly at her and sat down on her homework. "Hi."

"Hi, um Ed, what are you doing here? I thought you guys were in some kind of trouble. Everyone's been asking me about you."

"Everyone?"

"Yeah, apparently they couldn't reach you at your house, and is your cell phone turned off? Because no one could contact you guys all day. We've all been worried sick about you."

"Oh, I didn't think... they would care that much."

"Well of course I do, I mean we do." She felt herself blush then spun around and straightened some of the piles of debris in her room. A stomp box for the guitar tipped over a headless chess piece face that broke in two. She thought it was a disappointing show of her things and was very embarrassed at having company see the disheveled mess.

"Stop, you don't have to do that, I won't be long."

"What? Where are you going? Why go at all, you can stay here if you want. You said some guys were out to get you, you can hide here."

"No, I can't, we've..." He remembered that he couldn't tell her about the safe house even though he wanted to in the worst way. "Dad is waiting for us... I just had to come by and say... thank you." Edward looked up at her standing there. Of course she would do everything in her power to protect him. He studied her soft eyes that were pleading for him to stay. It hit him that she wanted nothing more then to be with him, even if it means getting into the same trouble he was in. She liked him, a lot, but they simply hadn't the courage to say much of anything in the few years he's been in the town. Besides his family, Edward could not get close to too many people in town and felt the need to be aloof.

Then there was Jen. She was perfect. She always spoke freely with him, no matter what form he was in. Just earlier today he had told her things that he would never tell anyone outside of the family. How he felt deep down inside that he was some two faced monster. Jen had told him that he couldn't be any kind of monster because he is the most honest person that she had ever met. She said that she envied his ability to give so much of his time to help out the younger kids. She also told him how much she would love to find a good man like that. A slip of the tongue, Edward thought she meant that he couldn't be that one man because of this other feline half. He looked deep into her soft gray eyes and hated that he couldn't run up to her and kiss her all over. He wished he could sweep her off her feet and fly away with her to somewhere beautiful. He blinked away the fantasy just as fast as it appeared.

Meanwhile, she thought he was thinking the offer over, but realized he wasn't going to budge on his decision. "Ed. You don't just drop in on a girl in the middle of the night to say 'thanks'." She folded her arms and waited for the real reason for the late night visit.

"Jen... I can't tell you how much... umm that is... Thank you. You are so good to me. You were always good to me, and I didn't want to leave town without expressing how much you mean to me."

"Ed... what are you saying, you're leaving Amystriss?" Jen felt like she was loosing her best friend even though they had only really hung out at school. She wanted more but never had enough guts to go for it. And even now, she was childishly hoping that he was going to whisk her away with him. "Where are you going?"

"I can't tell you where, we don't even know yet. That's the truth. And I... I just wanted also to make sure that you were safe. You are safe right? Has there been anyone suspicious around? Maybe someone asking questions about me?"

"No, just the guys at school. I was worried that they might have followed me too but I didn't see anyone at all after school. I was keeping a close eye on the neighborhood, but I didn't see anything odd."

"Ok, that's good, that means they don't know where you live. Just umm, stay here..." He studied her minutely hidden expressions as his gaze danced all over her beautiful face. He could tell that there was so much that she wanted to say but turned around to hide his own emotions that were getting the better of him. He peered out the window into the dark night and then back at her. He sighed as he admired her slim shape in the velvet robe. 'If only I was in human form... what am I thinking, even if I was human now I still couldn't sweep her off her feet without breaking something. Why do I have to be such a lightweight. Urgh. I'm sure she understands... I just wish I could show... ' He thought.

"Um Jen... I..." he started then stopped. There was nothing he could do, he had to leave her. It was pointless to confess how he felt about her when he was just going to leave her forever. Then he shook his head and looked into her eyes with determination. He would show how much he cared for her by eliminating the potential threat to her. He found a new strength in himself. "Jen. You don't have to worry about a thing. Once I take care of this business that I have with them, I will be back for you." He lied to keep her hidden. If she had decided to find or follow him, there would be no end of trouble for her.

"Ed... do you promise."

He hesitated for a moment and said "I will" in his mind he finished the sentence, 'I will try'. He sighed a little and said, "I have to go now. Come over here, please."

She walked over and stood in front of him then knelt down at the dresser. He smiled and gave her as big of a hug as he could manage and felt her warm embrace returned. He nuzzled her neck and breathed in her lovely scent for the last time. Holding this precious memory in his soul.

Jen started to choke up and cry. "You better be back here, or I will hunt you down myself." She breathed.

Edward nodded and bumped her chin with his forehead. He looked into her eyes again and smiled. "Goodbye."

Before she could say anything more, he turned around and leaped out of the window and ran around the house. Jen leaned out of her window but lost him in the dark. "You better come back." She said as she slid her window shut most of the way, leaving a small gap for him, if he needed to get in. She then turned out her small light and stood at the window for a few minutes and noticed some strands of fur on her white school papers. Gently sweeping them together, she put them into a book that she pulled off of the bookshelf. Patting it fondly she put it back, sighed sadly, and went to bed, completely unable to sleep after that foreboding farewell.

Edward sat down on the side of the house out of view. He waited for his own emotions to calm down before meeting back up with his brother.

Jack drifted off to sleep in the chair moments before he felt Ed jump up onto his lap and punch him in the chest to wake him up. He snapped awake and caught Ed's hind legs just as he was about to leap off again. "Ha! Caught the tomcat." He said and then dropped Ed slowly to the ground, making him handstand for a few seconds before letting go of his hind legs.

Ed batted at Jack's bare leg, giving him some superficial marks, "Whatever moose. Nice look out man you make. I'm gone for a minute and you're snoring at your post."

"You took long enough in there. It's not like we'd gotten any rest in over 8 hours since school ended. We’ve done nothing but run, rock climb, swim, walk endlessly for hours, rope climb, all the while dodging bullets, darts, explosives... hell, you name it. They might even try a few bow and arrows and trebuchet tosses at us. Just to mix it up a bit!"

"Wouldn’t surprise me." Edward laughed.

"I think a little shut eye is in order don’t you? 'Sides no one's been down this street after dark." He yawned then got up. They started walking again and noticed a Frisbee on the sidewalk ahead of them. Jack decided to throw it up to the house he thought it belonged to and it crash landed in the flower bed next to the house.

"Nice throw, you know, I bet if you try hard enough you might be able to make it in the right yard next time." Ed cockily strode out ahead, "This one has the kids. That house is empty and up for sale."

"Feel good about yourself?"

"I feel great, is there anything else I can bust you on?"

Jack went to boot Ed's rump with the end of his shoe but Ed was faster and jumped ahead a little, chuckling at Jack's pitiful attempts at retribution.

Jack remembered an earlier time, walking the block with Ed and tossing Frisbee's. That gave him an idea. He decided a bit more casual chatting might help Edward unknowingly blurt out more clues about his past. It seemed to be that recent events are helping them understand more about Edward then all of the past 3 years he's been in the family.

Jack decided to start simple and out of the blue. He knew that Edward knew that Jack was a sucker for randomness. So it hid his intentions perfectly. "Hey Ed, remember that day, at the library 2 years ago? We were trying to look up some books there right after we moved in. I think it was in March."

"Yeah, later that same day we brought home Dan." Edward wondered if the dog was alright.

Jack could tell that he was loosing the topic and veered it back on track. "Yeah, what was it we were looking up? Books on the occult, some werewolf books. What else was it?"

"Oh umm, well, all kinds of things. We were trying to figure out what I could be. Trying to narrow it down through research. I remember we later rented all the odd sci fi and monster movies that the video store had, and then taking notes from all of them." They turned right to walk around a huge yard with tall fences. Jack could tell that Ed was now remembering that day, so he stopped talking to let his brother reminisce.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Maybe you're a wizard? That would be awesome!"

"I’m not a wizard." Ed rolled his eyes at Jack.

"How do you know? You could be like that kid in that movie that was out a few years back. He didn't know he was a wizard, then boom, magic powers!" Jack enthused.

"I’m not a wizard. Wizards have like magic and stuff. I can't like conjure up anything. My body changes shape but I can't control it at all. We can't even predict when it will happen. That's far from a super power, it's more like a cruel joke." Ed tossed another one of the books onto the huge table in the local library's cult section.

"Maybe we should check out the books on witches and warlocks and that kind of thing." Jack suggested with a wide swing of his arm to show off the selection. "See if there is a way you can learn to control it at least... once we figure you out first."

Ed reluctantly went over to the wall of old weather beaten books and perused the titles. He didn't know why Jack was so fascinated with his appearance and shape-shifting. To Ed it was just the way he was. Jack thought that if Ed wasn't able to remember where he was before their mom Janet found him on the road, then he would at least help him find out what he is. It would help him cope with people that constantly have questions about the boy. Some kind of answer to the numerous inquiries.

"Well this one looks interesting." Jack flipped over a book to read the back cover then fanned the pages to get a feel for it.

"Yeah, Hahaha that's because it has pictures, you love the pictures dontcha?"

"Well, maybe we need a good visual reference, lot faster then trying to read everything in this whole library." Jack shrugged and put the book under his arm then read aloud a few more books with titles like: 'Witches Warlocks and Familiars', 'The Modern Witch', 'Wicca and You' and a 'Potter' book. That last one was Jack's way of telling if Ed was paying attention.

Meanwhile Ed was back at the long table, flipping through a murder mystery book that someone had left there before they got to the library. Ed read the dust jacket, it was a comedy about a detective that used the holistic movements of people, events and objects in any given situation to solve crimes. Ed wondered how he would go about being a detective. "No, I'm not really detective material. They usually fight the bad guys, not just find them." Ed looked at his scrawny arms that made the t-shirt hang off of him as if he was just a hanger in a closet. Ed wasn't really interested in being a detective anyhow. He put the book down and slid it across the table so Jack could put down the two arm loads of books he brought back to the table.

They fell in a loud jumbled heap and someone from the other side of the library gave an equally loud, 'Shuuush'.

"Shuush yourself! Turn off your hearing aid." Jack quietly mocked.

Ed sank in his chair, it was a lot of books. "You're not going to read all of those are you? My show is going to be on... tomorrow!"

"We're not spending the night here dork, and I’m not going to read all of these, you are."

"What?! No way, you dragged me here, you read them." Edward crossed his arms and stared at Jack defiantly. But Jack wasn't looking at him, he simply started to flip through one of the 'witch' books. Even though Ed actually loved to read, he was not anxious to find the meaning of his very existence in some random book at a library. It was more fun to read for the sheer joy of reading and he didn't want to taint it by doing it only for research.

Ed stalled as long as he could but boredom kicked in and he pulled on over a book too. Jack grinned behind his book so Ed couldn't see. He had hung around Ed long enough to recognize that his little brother _had_ to learn something new _all the time_. All Jack had to do is to make Ed bored enough and he will do whatever odd thing Jack asked of him. A trick that comes in handy on long dull afternoons. Edward just couldn't help but analyze and figure things out, even if they seemed mundane or odd.

Jack always wanted a sibling to hang around with and Ed was the perfect little brother in his mind, always following him around and keeping daily life fun for the both of them. He smiled at him then read on in his book, looking up occasionally to make sure Ed was still there. Jack showed Ed a photo of 'Greek #3' that was of a preserved human body with an  atavism tail that was dropped off at the head office of a medical college.

Edward laughed out loud as he said, "Why did you give me an exquisite dead guy? It's not my birthday!"

"Hahaha, loser. Renew my subscription to that medical journal." Jack said as he went back to his integrity project. He was surprised to find out that all human fetuses have a tail early in the embryonic development. In a few cases the tail doesn’t absorb back into the body and develops much the way it would in a monkey, with vertebrae, hair and nerves.

A couple of too cool girls passed them by, Jack completely failed to interest them in a joint reading session. Sighing, he went back to reading. "Maybe you're a warlock, a male witch." he held the book pages flat and faced it at Edward.

"Dude, I am not a man-witch."

"Manwich? Heh, some supernatural lunch devoured by people in cloaks." Jack chuckled, showing a picture of a male witch in a long frilled coat that was all the rage in the 1600's, eating something that actually resembled a human arm. "This one is now on the menu at Junies BBQ downtown." Jack pointed to a stylized painting of a bound and gagged man that was turning on a spit over a fire pit with menacing figures dancing all around.

"Need potatoes with those ribs." Ed licked his lips and made yummy sounds. They laughed a bit and were shushed again by the same old lady behind the bookcases. They shushed back and forth while kicking each other under the table.

"Oh wait, what's that?" Jack pointed at a smallish black smudge at the foot of a black trench-coated man in the next picture. "What is that Ed? Can you see that long thing? Is that a tail?"

Ed held the book up to his face closely and studied the black thing. "I think it's an animal. A dog or something." Ed shrugged and handed the book to Jack again.

"It's a cat! See the ears, they are small and pointed up. This looks like a weird collar. I am pretty sure it's a cat..." Jack turned the book at an angle so the figure of the cat was seen in a more recognizable position. The cat was leaping down from a large rock and looked very odd. "Yeah I guess in old paintings they liked to exaggerate the cat features, pointed ears, long tail and huge claws."

Ed looked down at his hands. He didn't have regular fingernails like other people. His intimidating sharp claws remained when he was human, but he learned to keep them inside his fingertips so people would stop staring at them. Now he pushed on the inside of his left hand palm and rubbed outward along his fingers and eased the nails out. They weren't too long but they were very sharp and strong enough to hold him up on the tree's and buildings.

Jack glanced over at Ed and then back at the book to keep reading. "Says here that that is the dude's 'familiar'."

"His familiar what."

"Familiar."

"Yeah," Ed looked straight at Jack. "What is familiar to him."

"His cat is."

"Yes of course his cat is familiar to him. It's his cat." Ed was getting impatient, looking at Jack like he was thickheaded, and wondered if he was being put on.

"Oh no, haha that's what they call their cats, and other animals." Jack pointed to the part he had just looked over in the book and read aloud. "‘Many witches and warlocks have animals that are their companions, they can be any animal but are traditionally; ravens, hawks, owls, rats, and wolves, but the animals that are most commonly known as familiars are cats.’ Hang on a second lemme look it up in my cell’s dictionary... here we go. ‘A spirit helping a witch: the aid or helper of a witch, usually supposed to be a spirit with supernatural powers that takes the form of an animal, for example, a cat. Also called familiar spirit.’ In this other book I think I read something similar... here it is: ‘Many stories and fables have the familiars aiding the witch or warlock in their many quests, and only the witch or warlock can understand them.’ "

"What, like, they talk?"

"Seems like it, but I guess only to one person." Jack read on to himself for a while. "Yeah, just to one person, their master." He paused and looked at Ed. Edward was slouching at the table playing with a pencil, pretending to not be interested.

"I guess you're either _my_ familiar, or maybe something else." Jack chuckled a bit and put the book down. He thought that if Ed wanted to hear more he would say something. He got up to look for different books to check out on the shelves all along the far back wall.

Ed wondered if he was a familiar after all. But, one that had lost his old master, or maybe he was rejected by that master and that's why he was left for dead. He thought about finding a new master, belonging to some human as a pet or possession, and it made him a little depressed. He considered what it would be like as Jack's familiar, or pet, instead of his brother. Jack would be a good choice in masters, being so kind to him, but the thought of loosing his current freedoms was not an option he preferred. Ed slumped further in his chair and looked around at all of the neatly designed windows and the brown and green 80's style carpet. 'I’m still free, I just choose to be with them.'

A man sitting at the next table over was feigning at being deeply engrossed in a rather large book that looked to be about circuitry and mechanics of machines. Ed noticed that the man would occasionally glance his eyes upwards and catch Ed's gaze and then quickly look back down again. He seemed to be about 30, with jet black hair that curled a bit. What caught Ed's attention most was how thin the guy looked and how he seemed to want to talk to them but kept sticking his nose in his book. Ed shrugged and gave a polite smile at the man who abruptly got up and left his own table and walked directly behind him. Ed hung his head to keep from possibly annoying the man further, and felt as if he had done something wrong to cause the man to leave. Ed tilted his head and frowned at the table as he heard Jack come back from the bookshelves and sat down across from him.

Jack knew he was loosing Ed fast. He took one of the cards that the librarians set out for people who need to write down notes or track their books. He folded it up into a small paper football and put his left index finger on the up-righted point making it stand on the table. With his right hand he started to make the flick sign at Ed. Ed looked up and smirked, "Sorry, I was just staring off into the abyss, turns out you have to tilt your head to see the abyss." He chuckled, holding the pencil horizontal to the table, and got his head down and dared Jack to just try it. Jack flicked the tiny football a bit too high and got Ed right in the forehead.

"Ohh you suck at this!"

"Better then you can do." Jack retorted.

Ed tossed Jack the pencil and looked under the table for the football. There was a book there that looked old. Very worn and obviously used. He hadn't noticed it before they sat down. "Did you see this one?" Ed said from under the table.

"What?" Jack leaned way over in his chair to see Ed standing up. He then righted himself in his seat in time for Ed to flick the football at him.

"Touchdown!"

"You dork!" He laughed. "That doesn't count! 'Sides, touchdowns are when the ball is brought to the end zone and touched down onto the grass."

"Then what do you call flicking it over the bar things?"

"I..." Jack stammered and then conceded. "I actually forgot. Dad is the one that watches the Packers games, I don't." Jack said. "Oh speaking of, we're supposed to be back home to take the plastic off the windows and help him with your cat door after his other game finishes up."

"What? What cat door, I don't need one." Ed nervously laughed and glanced around the library to see if anyone was listening to the conversation. They weren't, but the old lady shushed them again regardless if they were loud or not. Apparently she was on a mission to make shush noises at kids in the library.

Jack picked up a couple of the books and went to the front desk to check them out. Ed followed behind a bit, politely piling up the rest of the books into a stack. The small old book was absentmindedly stuffed into his jacket pocket. The far back corner of his mind told him that it was _his_ old book in the first place, and not to forget it there. Ed adjusted his jacket once he made sure no one was looking. Ed's jacket was habitually tied around his waist to help hide his tail because he didn't want to draw attention to himself. This was his first time to a library. He picked up a few more books but was hopeless in finding out where Jack had gotten the 40 some books. He shrugged, piled them up onto a rolling cart and went after Jack who was now leaving through the front doors with his newly acquired collection.

Ed popped outside after Jack, giving a friendly salute at the old lady and making his mouth 'zip shut'. He saw Jack who was half jogging down the town streets to their new house. Ed inhaled the beautiful spring air and effortlessly caught up to Jack who was now giving it his best to outrun the natural born sprinter.

There was no outrunning Edward. He was swift and agile, instinctively knowing where the best spot for his feet to land for grip, support and launch. He struggled and resisted the urge to 4 leg it on home. That would be cheating. He did not see the need to add insult to injury when he could get there a long time before Jack had rounded the corner of the block. Ed slowed his sprint a bit so he could chat with Jack as they ran. Jack was panting, Ed just started with, "Nice day for a jog, dontcha think?"

"Oh shut up showoff!" Jack said between breaths as he was trying to hold his own in this race, but it was painfully obvious that Ed was the better runner.

"The streets are so clean here it's almost eerie." Ed said. "If now is strange, what'll tomorrow be like?"

"Well, more of the same... it's a gated community, what do ya expect?"

"Yeah, but I miss the old place."

"Me too. But I don't miss our old neighbors. They turned into pricks!"

"They.." Ed stopped short, blinked at the curse word, and nodded in agreement. His mind wandered back to the old town and their old neighbors that couldn't cope with the new addition to the Johnson family. Saying he was unnatural and a danger to the community, soon the neighbors refused to acknowledge or even chit chat with them over the fence. Instead they opted to make up their own stories and theories as to what was going on in the Johnson house.

Jack would occasionally hear them gossip and would shout over to them. "Hey I have a theory! You Suck!" and laugh uproariously at them as they became pompous and indignant.

Janet and Henry soon found out that it wasn't just their next door neighbors that had a problem with Edward. Every time they went out they heard people whispering down the aisles at grocery stores, and shopping centers. The gossiping and the outright name calling was more then offensive. Ed shrank away from public but would follow Jack if he went out somewhere. Ed knew that with Jack around, he was safe.

Jack was never a pushover, and would nail anyone that would give his little brother any trouble.

They continued on home, adamant that their old lives were behind them, and only good things were up ahead.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Anything new?" Jack asked Ed who jolted back to reality, then realized that they covered quite a bit of walking ground to the safe house while he reminisced.

"Oh uh what?" Ed said, quickening his 4 legged pace to match Jack's long strides.

"I mean... what are ya thinking about?"

"Oh the places you'll go." Edward smiled, remembering that the book he took was not destroyed in the house's implosion earlier that night, but hidden away in the backyard shed, his hide-out. "It's an old book I found at the library under my chair. Probably way overdue... but, it is what it is, and I am not giving it back." Edward said looking ahead of him, he's lost too many things this night.

"Anything else pop to mind?" Jack tried not to sound like he was prying but it couldn't be helped. Edward noticed right away what his ploy was and just kept trotting next to Jack silently.

Jack started again, "So um..." then stopped. He had no idea how to go about asking in a round about way so he stopped walking and Edward slowed his trot and stopped about 7 feet ahead of Jack. He hung his head and his ears laid back.

"I know it must be frustrating for you, I'm sorry I don't have any answers. It... comes and goes..." Ed turned around and looked up at Jack. Jack walked over to someone's lawn and sat down in the grass next to a couple of large stone mailbox posts. Ed walked over and sat down next to him, both facing the street. An owl hooted at them from down the road, and they could hear some cars honk somewhere in town.

Ed tried to collect his thoughts that had no apparent origin.

"I'm sorry too." Jack said first as he flicked a rock into the street.

Edward looked up quizzically. "What do you have to be sorry about? It's all my fault that we're in this mess. You should hate me but you're just sitting there. Why?"

"How many times do I have to say it? You're my little brother, I don't give a rats ass if we're not technically related. You are my brother, and as far as I'm concerned you always were and will be family. As your older brother it's my job to protect you." Jack pet Ed on the back as Ed unconsciously leaned into it. Jack continued, "It's just... I've heard of this kind of thing before, I don't think that it's amnesia that you have... I think your mind is trying to block it out. You didn't know it, but sometimes I would check out other books from the library about memory loss and I think some of the things I learned apply to this situation."

Edward looked up expectantly. Any lead on to how to get some helpful clues were like shimmering gold to him at that moment. "Like what kind of things?"

"Well, there's post traumatic stress syndrome. I read that it's very common for soldiers to get that from wars where they simply block out everything from the war until it resurfaces later. That seems most plausible. Then I remembered that, when you were on the street that day, you had lost a lot of blood. There's another thing that if your brain doesn't get enough fresh oxygen from the circulating blood it can cause some degree of brain damage. That also sounds feasible. And amnesia, deals I think with some sort of blow to the head, but you didn't forget everything like most amnesia cases do. Ever see that movie with Harrison Ford? It's kinda an old movie, where he survives a gun shot wound to the head and has to relearn everything from scratch and he becomes like a different person altogether. The reason I ruled that out is because you could speak English like right away. You remembered how to walk and move around and all that. You probably would have been a completely different person if you forgot everything... your first words to us after the accident wouldn't have been 'thank you', it might have been something like goo goo gah gah." Jack ruffled Edward's fur on his head.

"So what did you narrow it down to?"

"Um, I guess, it could be a combination of post traumatic stress and the sudden blood loss to the brain. You said before... that you were in the street for a long time. The longer you were there, untreated, the more blood you lost and the more you forgot. I'm guessing that's what happened. Shoot, I'm surprised that you remember anything at all after that. Anyone else would have died right there on the street." Jack gestured to the street in front of them.

Ed winced when he thought of all the animals that they regularly see as road kill. Each time they pass one, Jack always attempts to distract Ed if he sees it before him.

But Edward wised up and would say a silent prayer for all the poor animals. 'Any one of them could have been me, would anyone have said a prayer for me?'

He would think about it often whenever they drove anywhere, eventually he decided to limit his car trips, opting instead to ride along with Jack on his dirt bike on small paths and trails instead of main streets filled with cars. Edward then remembered that one awful car in particular, with the stained navy blue seats that smelled like years of old fast food mixed in with cigarette smoke and sweat. He glanced down at a couple of cigarette butts that were on the side of the street.

Ed murmured just loud enough for Jack to hear, "I was in the backseat with a guy that had no idea what was really going on. I think they didn't want the guys dropping me off to know anything about the... umm mission? I think? I'm still fuzzy on why I was in a car with those two. Anyway I'm pretty sure that they didn't know why they were going to drop me off somewhere. And I get the distinct impression that they thought I was just some dumb cat. One was in the front seat driving and the other was holding onto my collar in the backseat. I remember thinking that if I was going to get away from the place that I was from, that this was the best opportunity I had. I surprised the guy in the backseat with the hardest punch I could make to his face. I should have opted for a full clawed slap instead. I had hoped only to knock him out or at least distract him long enough so I could jump out of the window and tuck and roll then... I dunno, run for the nearest cover. But of course I was too light to make an impact on him and he was pissed that I tried it, he beat me up pretty badly. He had both hands around my neck, strangling me. He broke my ribs when he kicked me up against the door, and I think my leg broke then too. It could have broken later after the asshole threw me out of the back driver's side window. Then an oncoming car hit me right after I landed on the ground. The assholes must have thought I was dead because they just left me there. I guess they didn't think that a simple cat would be missed all that much, so they left. I can only imagine what they told the others when they got back to them."

Edward sat silently replaying the event in his mind, trying to think of how he could have handled the situation more efficiently. What maneuvers he could have done on the man so he could have escaped without injury. He had a secret smile on his face when he recalled that yes, he did claw out one of the bastard's eyes. That was at least a little bit of payback. He regretted not doing more, then caught himself thinking malicious thoughts of violence and shook his head to clear it. He shifted his position next to Jack and noticed the stunned expression on his brother's face.

Jack had never heard this story before and it made his stomach churn. He knew Ed must have been struck by a car but didn't know that he was beaten that badly, feeling that much pain before being hit by an oncoming car. Edward leaned over and bumped his head on Jack's elbow to distract him. There was no need to dwell on the nastiness.

"I’m ok now, so don't worry about it. It's all in the past. So, what's goin' on up there?" Edward asked in a laid back manner. It was clear that Jack wanted to know more, but felt bad for bringing it up.

"I can't believe that someone would do that to you when you were so young and helpless. I can't even think of someone hurting you like that. Those bastards are gonna pay for it." Jack made a fist.

"That one did, at least a little. I wasn't gonna tell you this, but another reason why they left me there was that he had bigger problems then worrying about a dead cat. In our fight I was able to give the bastard a few scars and uh, I took out one of his eyeballs." Ed held up a paw and curled his nails in and out while half shrugging at Jack.

Jack's eyes went wide and he was both shocked and proud of his brother. Admitting that there were only so many defensive moves a young cat could do on some grown man. Jack remembered how little the cat looked when he was first brought home. So frail and half dead, and how he wished that whoever did this to him would suffer some kind of harsh punishment. Jack was glad that the punishment came from Edward himself.

"He tried his hardest to torture and kill me, he even thought he succeeded and left me for dead. I have to admit that I would love to finish him off, but it's unlikely that I'll ever see that bastard again." Edward growled at the thought. He looked up to Jack and instantly regretted saying that. "I'm sorry. I'm just pissed about the whole event. Well, the parts that I remember of course."

"It's ok Ed, no one would blame you." Jack said, "But, I would like to ask you about what you said before, about being on a mission in aunt Ana's neighborhood?"

"Umm, I think it might have been a test run?"

"Sounds a bit odd to stage it in her neighborhood. Of course I don't doubt what you're saying is true, I just can't figure it out. It's like we're trying to do a puzzle when we're missing half of the pieces and the other half won't stop changing shape in your head. Personally, I can't hide from my mind, always thinking of stupid random crap..."

"Believe me I wish I could sort it all out in my head. I had kept asking myself why I was there on the street. It wasn't until today in Dad's truck that I remembered that much, nevertheless, I don't think I can easily forget it now. I almost wish I never remembered." Ed watched a car pass by on the lane. Both of them hunched over so they wouldn't be seen behind the 2 mailboxes. Ed sighed audibly and shivered a little. "They drove on by. Every car that drove by just ignored me. They swerved around but I know that was only so they wouldn't get their tires dirty... no one stopped... they never stopped... they didn't care." Edward hung his head lower.

"Mom did." Jack hugged him with one arm and leaned him up against his side, rousing Ed's spirits. They sat quietly for a moment thanking the heavens for their mother being there at the right time and place.

"Ok." Jack helped Ed to his feet, then got up on his knees and tousled Ed's furry head.

Ed stood up and said quietly, "I hope Mom is still ok. We better get to the safe house soon or Dad'll drive around everywhere in town looking for us."

"You're right, we already took time out to go to Jen's house, I know we are both tired as heck of running so let's just walk there. This side of town doesn't seem to be too active. I only saw 2 cars out here so far, that's not bad." Jack knell-walked a few 'steps' then said, "Ed help me up would ya? My legs don't want to work any more."

"Yeah lemme just throw your big tail-less ass onto my back and I'll just leap right on over the last quarter mile to the safe house. Get up." Edward laughed at him as Jack moaned and groaned loudly as he shuffled off of the curb.

"What does being tail-less have to do with anything? More to the point you're lucky, you've got twice as many legs as I do."

"Yeah but I have to cover over twice the distance 'cause I'm way smaller then you. Strictly speaking of course, you could always try to go 4 legged. Fact, if you make it 2 blocks on your hands and feet without complaining, I will walk the rest of the way on just my hind legs. Deal?"

"That doesn't sound pleasant for either of us Dude." Jack said as he got to his feet and stretched.

"I just wanted to see you try. Don't forget the bag." Ed patted it with his paw.

"There's another thing Ed, I've got to carry this big-ass wrench and flare gun in my pack with the rest of the stuff. So gimme a break."

"Hey I wasn't gonna say nuthin, but everyone knows you're slower then continental drift."

"Mean dude."

Ed just smirked.

"So, that book you found, what's it about?" Jack put the loaded pack back on and started walking again.

"Inspirational stuff, like, don't sweat the small stuff and believe in yourself, yadda yadda. There was something in the book though that was strange." Edward said, "There was a handwritten note folded up in it that said, 'Be who you are, because those who mind - don't matter. And those who _matter_ \- don't mind!' with a 'D' after it."

"D for Dr. Seuss?"

"Maybe... I dunno. Good book though. I liked it." Edward said.

The two kept walking down the street while keeping an ear out for anything out of the ordinary.

 


	11. Morse Code Mutt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dog figures out a way to talk to Frank, and let him know what's going on.

Chapter 11 Morse code mutt

 

 

 

"OhI think they turned 'Bessy' on again." Frank said aloud to Janet.

Janet rolled over on her cot to face him. "Turned what on?" She asked sleepily.

"That thing I was telling you about. Big ass machine with the steel spheres on the top. Listen carefully and you can hear the hum from over there." He pointed in the direction down the row of cells towards the security personnel's room. They sat up quietly for a moment and heard a very faint vibration in the clear cell walls where they connected with the metal floor joints.

"Yeah, I would have missed it entirely if you hadn't said something."

"Oh wait... no... it's a different machine that they just turned on now, this one isn't as loud as the other one that they used before. I wish I knew what the heck they use the big one for. It doesn't seem to be set to any schedule or time as far as I can tell. Looks like your dog can hear this one quite well, even if it is quieter then the other one." He pointed across the hall to the cell housing a very distraught canine.

The dog paced back and forth frequently glaring at the cameras on the ceiling. 'Something's happening. What is going on out there?' The dog thought as he paced.

"Hmm I think it stopped." Frank said after feeling the walls of his cell stop vibrating.

"There was something that you said earlier, it reminded me of something that happened at our house about 3 months ago. You said, that they tried to use that machine... whatever it is... on you 5 times in 1 day. Do you remember how long ago that was?"

"Umm, well it was about a week after I got here so I guess it was February 8th." Holding up one finger at a time he counted, "February to March to April to May... you said today is May 18th? Yeah that would be about 3 months ago."

Janet stood up suddenly and walked to the wall separating their cells. "You're sure, you are absolutely sure it was Feb. 8th?"

"Yeah, they kidnapped me on the first and 7 days later they did that."

"You've got to be kidding!"

"Why? What?"

"Edward changed shape 5 times that day!"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I think that whatever that machine Bessy is, is what has been making him transform. We never figured out what the trigger was."

Frank stood up and walked over to the wall so Janet wouldn't have to talk loudly through the small holes drilled into the clear walls. "Go on." He said.

"Well, the kids watched some old horror movies, trying to deduce what the cause for his changing could be. Like, a werewolf transforms in full moon but can't touch silver. Ed could hold our silver pie server from his aunt Ana so that was not it. In some vampire movies they change from humans into bats but they can't go out in daylight. Ed obviously could go out in the sun so that wasn't it either. The boys had tested everything, sunlight, full moon, garlic, water... like in that movie a few years back the aliens couldn't touch water, that wasn't it. Even if some evil curse could do that to him it is highly unlikely because we just couldn't see Ed being able to tick off anyone, ever in his life. They thought it might be that he only changed shape at certain times of the day or following some kind of celestial orbits of planets, which is far fetched because everyone now knows that the shifts are unpredictable. He would change at random times day or night so that wasn’t the case. Jack read up on all kinds of things when Ed was downstairs writing in his journals.

"He told me about the fact there are human chimeras out in the world right now. Two people sharing one body, not like regular conjoined twins like the Zaphod girls that live downtown. There was a documented case back in 1998 of a woman that needed a kidney transplant and had genetic testing done. She was told that she couldn't be the biological mother of 2 of her 3 her kids. They took a different DNA test of the mother's eggs and other body parts and discovered that she was actually a pair of twins. It happens

when fraternal twin embryos fuse together in the early developmental stages. Two people forming one body. That is why Jack took an interest in that story. Ed is human but is also a cat, he isn’t one or the other but both at the same time. Jack eventually gave up research on human chimeras mainly because they never actually change shape, once natural chimeras are born they stay that form for life." She informed.

"That is interesting to find out. I always wondered about the DNA part. So I’m guessing you did a test?" Frank said.

"Well, no. We would have had to go to a facility that does those kinds of complicated tests. We were too afraid of letting his secret way out in public. Put in some medical journal as a freak of nature. I’m sure you realize what people are like when they see something out of the ordinary." She motioned at his tail.

He sheepishly said, "Yeah I guess I see where you’re going. There would be no end to the tests on him. When I was a kid I remember my parents sitting me down and talking to me about cutting my tail off surgically to be more like everyone else. They wanted to wait until I was old enough to speak for myself, they told me that it was my decision and not theirs to alter my body. I thought about it for weeks. I was very attached to my tail, ha, no pun intended. The kids would tease but I knew that they were just scared of the unknown. After awhile this didn't bother them. As for your boy, I hoped that he would see that it's ok to open up to people you can trust."

"That’s one of the reasons why we were so grateful for Amystriss letting us move in."

"Yeah they’re good like that." Frank said with fond memories of the town the last time he saw it.

"Oh I think I’ve gotten a bit off track! So that machine out there, the big one with the metal spheres is most likely what causes my son to transform. So that means that these guys are no doubt the ones that originally had Edward. Ed must be what ties all of us together in this place. They must have thought that you were him."

"I can see that, dumb bastards simply saw someone with a tail and decided to kidnap them." Frank said.

"I've found that assigning reason to some people's actions is foolhardy. People don't use the word 'reason' enough... there's a reason for that!" Janet said giggling. "You know Edward has changed a lot since the day we first saw him, and I don’t mean just shapeshifting. He actually has matured and aged quite a lot faster then other kids. The first time we saw his human form was a few months after we adopted him and he looked to me to be about 7 years old. That was 3 years ago, now he looks like he's 14 or even 15. His birthday is coming up in a few days, I should say he has 3 birthdays a year because I believe he ages nearly 3 times as fast as regular people." Janet pondered about it for a minute. "So that means that he was only a few years old when we first saw him. Course, when you look at regular cats they grow very quickly for the first few months then taper off after that. He might have been born 2 years before. Hang on I need to write this down to figure it out better." She looked around her small cell room for something to write with.

Frank just looked at her and gave a wave. "Don't bother, they wouldn't leave a pen or pencil lying around with us convicts." He gave a light laugh.

"Convicts indeed." She put her fists to her hips.

"Yeah yeah I know, they've been treating me like an inmate since I got here, and not just the whole 'stay in your cell'. They take all kinds of precautions with me like I’m actually going to start some shit at any moment. Of course, since they've kept me wrongfully imprisoned all this time, I wouldn't mind a shot at them." He laughed and shrugged and sat down on his bed. "So." Frank sighed.

"So." wondering which conversation to go with.

"So Ed is, right now... 5 years old." Frank said once he added up all of the theoretical numbers together.

"Yeah... he must be about 5 years old. But he looks and acts like he's nearly 15 like Jack. I never thought about it before but this is the only time in their lives when they will be the same age. Pretty soon when Jack is 20, Ed will be about 30! Oh wow. A few years after that and he will look older then Henry and I! That might be harder to explain to people, I can just see it, 'no really, both of them are our boys' hahaha." Janet laughed lightly but in truth the thought of Edward having a dramatically shorter life scared her. Since they've been with him constantly, the changes in his growth were not as noticeable as someone that only saw him once in awhile.

Frank thought of some other quirks that Edward had. "I remember one day Jack and Ed came into my store and started to check out some of the novelty fridge magnets. Now maybe you can explain to me what they were doing because to me it looked like they were playing tag with them. Jack started to throw the small cheap ones at Ed and they would stick to his skin, then he would take them off and Jack would catch them and throw it again. I don’t mind the kids playing around in the store so don't get upset about that! I was just wondering what that all was about."

"Oh I’m sorry they were roughhousing at your store."

He waved his hand again to dismiss the kids playing and wanted to hear about the magnets.

"See the thing is, well, magnets stick to Edward, when he's human his skin turns into fur where it touches. When he's a cat the magnets make his fur fall off and turn to his human skin. It's probably scary for others to see it so I tried telling the boys to keep it as a family joke only."

"They make him change skin? That's kinda creepy."

"Well at first yeah, but once we got used to it we just started doing it like practical jokes. You know, like whenever Ed would misbehave we would just throw magnets at him, sounds mean but ya gotta understand, Ed thinks it's hilarious."

"I guess every family's got their quirks, my family likes to make every note in

the house for other family members in code, like the grocery list will be in Pig Latin which is harder then you think! Phone numbers would be drawn out in Braille. Oh and my little sister loves to put odd messages on our answering machine so anyone outside of 'the know' would think they got the wrong number. Stuff like 'Hello, you've reached Conspiracy Theorists United, we won't be gathering due to the suspiciously large number of leaves on the trees outside.'" Frank laughed and added, "She loved making up all kinds of reasons for the 'Conspiracy Theorists United' to never _unite_. All kinds of crazy theories, I miss those, should have written them down back then. There was one she did for an imaginary sewing store. In a nice bright voice she'd say 'Hello you’ve reached 'I’ve got Embroids' we can't come to the phone right now, the lines are all bound up!' Then one she put on there went like, oh how did that go?" Frank thought for a few seconds then happily said, "'The perfect cover for insanity is sanity.' Oh and my personal favorite is when she simply started putting quotes on the answering machine, 'Life gets better as soon as you stop caring what the world thinks of you.' That one I love most and one day I should ask her to put it on a plaque for the storefront."

Both of them chuckled and exchanged other quotes and jokes they liked. The dog in the cell across from them smiled and laid his head on the ground watching them. As they chatted, they found it was easier for them to deal with being in this intimidating, huge dark room, with no clue as to where they were, if they fantasized about future plans and loved ones and better days.

Janet said waving her hand around lightly, "One of my favorite quotes is from a poem that Tolkien wrote: 'Not all those who wander are lost'. I find it as really peaceful thought, like walking in the woods. Course I guess you can flip it around like 'Not all who are lost, wander.'"

"That sounds deep, like people can be lost in their lives but pretend nothings wrong and stay put where they are." Frank said loving the chance to use his mind.

However, the pleasant chat wasn’t destined to last long. They were interrupted by the sound of a buzzer going off at the far end of the hall at the security room. They shot glances at each other and went on alert. The heavy metal door swung open and 2 suited men stepped through carrying something in a small zippered bag. They walked right up to Janet’s cell and said, "Put your arms through the bars please." In a tone of voice that meant 'or else'.

She reluctantly stood up and walked over to the barred door with her arms firmly at her sides. "What is going on here?" She said as stern of voice as she could muster. They weren’t going to push _her_ around.

"Put your fuckin arms through the bars." The man leaned forward and the other man swung around a large mean looking rifle that was slung over his shoulder.

Janet grit her teeth and shoved her arms through.

The dog that was across from her cell tried barking and growling menacingly but it was all just angry raspy yarps. He rammed his body up against the door several times making it echo loud bangs up and down the hall. 'Get your hands off of her!' The dog wanted to scream.

The man with the rifle spun around and stuck the butt end through the bars of the dog's cell door. He sneered at the dog and hit him square on the forehead with it, knocking him to the floor and pissing him off even more. The dog flipped his head around and caught the butt end of the rifle in his teeth and tried desperately to wrangle it out of the man's grip. He tried grabbing it with his front paws but was unable to grip it so he whipped his head back and forth using every muscle he had to back up from the door with the gun. The man jerked it out of the dog's mouth and bashed his head again. The dog gave a sharp cry, and his vision blurred for a moment, he staggered backwards for a few steps then dropped to the floor. His mouth started to bleed as he accidentally bit his tongue on the second impact. The man snorted as he pulled out the rifle from the cell with small drops of blood on the end.

"Don't kill him you idiot!" The other man said angrily at him.

"I didn’t, I just knocked him out."

"Yeah what am I supposed to tell Albert? That you killed him? Hmm?"

"Shut up let's just get this over with. Give him your damned arms, lady!"

Janet held onto the bars of the door sobbing at the sight of her dog laying on his side on the ground. She then faced the two men who stood resolutely in front of her. The one with the rifle aimed it at her. She put her arms through the bars and whispered, "You bastards..." She was weak with a mix of anger, despair and sadness.

In the zippered black bag was a syringe and soon the room spiraled out of sight as Janet went limp. They carried her out of the cell and down the hall but left the security door ajar behind them.

"Damn you assholes! What have we ever done to you?" Frank yelled at them from his cell, punching the walls and cursing. Now that he knew the reason why he was imprisoned for several months he cursed them all the more. "Leave that family alone! You have no right to keep any of us here!"

The dog raised his head wearily and looked around. 'I gotta tell someone, I gotta get help, they don’t know what’s going on.' He painfully got to his feet and went to the cell door. He steadied himself as he faced Frank and coughed to get some of the small drops of blood out of his mouth when he bit his tongue. The taste turned his stomach and he spit it out as best he could.

Frank stopped punching the wall when he saw the dog making odd motions with one front paw. Then the dog sat on his haunches and attempted to use both paws, in wide half circles, patting the paws together at different angles, bringing one in then out. He was still dizzy so he put his paws down again, otherwise he would tip over.

'Oh this is useless, I can't sign language without fingers. Umm how else can I...'

The dog then started to do a series of postures but found it infinitely difficult to maintain balance. 'Shit! Ok let's start simple, what made me think that charades would work. Ummm. Oh!' Then he sat up straight and stared straight at Frank making sure he was paying attention. Frank couldn’t help but watch the suddenly bizarre behavior of a dog that was just bashed in the head twice with a gun. Frank thought he had some kind of brain problem situation going on over there.

The dog leaned to one side while sitting so he could maintain his balance for what he was about to do. He pointed at Frank with his free foot then began to tap on the floor but found that it was nearly inaudible so he shook his head, waved his paw around then started to tap harder at the cell door, making a louder series of sounds.

Scratch tap tap tap tap ta ta tap tap tap... tap scratch scratch tap tap scratch ta ta ...

"What the f.." Frank listened and watched. Suddenly his ears heard the auditory equivalent of seeing a white vase where two silhouette faces were. "Morse code?"

The dog excitedly nodded and started over with the message. Scratch tap tap tap tap ta ta tap tap tap... tap scratch scratch tap -

"Ok ok, wait. You are talking to me in Morse code. It's impossible. What the hell is going on... did I get drugged too?"

The dog irritatingly shook his head then made it abundantly clear that he wanted Frank to listen to the message. Frank nodded dumbfounded, but obsequiously listened to the taps. Spelling out the letters and then words as he heard them. When the dog heard him talking along he smiled and taped louder.

"Ok, so, you're saying; This place is called the Center, you will be released soon." Frank dictated aloud and once he started getting the hang of taps and scratches instead of the more traditional short and long beeps he motioned with his hands that the dog could tap faster, and so he did.

"I think they are taking Janet to the main hall to wait for Edward, she should be fine. They just want Edward." Frank repeated what he heard the taps spelled out, then asked the dog,

"How do you know all this? You’re just her dog right? I’ve seen you with the boys dozens of times around town."

The dog shook his head then frowned at Frank and continued to tap. "I’m not Dan, I used to work for the Center, I was in here this morning with you, remember?" Frank repeated what he heard then thought about the question.

"I remember some skinny guy was locked up in here for awhile, that was you?"

"Yes. My mind is now inside this dog."

"So what happened to the dog's mind?"

"I think I took over..." The tapping halted as the dog paused and tried to ‘find’ the other thoughts of the host body. Then he started to tap and scratch at the barred door frame again. "I don’t hear him, I think when they put me in here they took him out. Sorry."

Frank suddenly felt very bad for him. "It wasn’t your fault they did this to you." Frank then added, "It looked like you had a ‘falling out’ with them. You were cursing up a storm earlier. What happened?"

The dog continued. "They found out I was helping the Johnson’s hide from the Center. I was..."

"Was what?" Frank asked when the tapping stopped. The dog's ears perked to the door then strained to hear some barely noticeable noises outside.

The dog suddenly felt like it was useless to try to explain everything to Frank, for here he was in a cell just across from him. He started scratching and tapping again. "Never mind. You will be released soon but they will wipe your memories first. You won't remember this conversation at all. Forget it."

"Wait a minute! How can I forget this? Tell me what I can do!"

"Nothing." The dog then frowned at Frank and wandered over to the cot in his cell and laid down on it.

"You can't just stop there, dog. You have to tell me more! Talk to me!" Frank banged on his cell door. "How can they wipe my memories? Are they going to do to me what they did to you?" Frank had a sting of fear run down his spine. He then quieted down and took a breath. "Does it hurt?" He asked sympathetically.

The dog turned his head to face Frank and shook it slowly. He reached a paw up to the wall and tapped, "It does at first but not now. They dope you up pretty good. But don’t worry, they won't do that to you. Albert likes you."

"Who’s Albert?"

Frank couldn’t hear the taps but watched the paw move instead. Judging when it was taping and scratching for the long ‘notes’. "He’s the one in charge and he doesn’t like to punish people that don’t deserve it, you were brought here by mistake so you’ll go home soon."

"Well, what about you? What will happen to you?"

"I don’t know." The dog brought his paws up close and sighed. He then repositioned his body and faced the back wall, away from Frank.

When it was apparent that the dog was done, Frank walked over to his own cot and sat down on it heavily. He decided not to probe further. Half an hour passed without them saying anything more. They both had a lot to think about. Frank couldn’t help but pray that he wouldn’t become trapped in some animal, or worse, and the dog prayed that help would arrive soon for Janet. He knew that Albert was unpredictable when he gets impatient.

The dog laid his head down and whimpered softly. 'I couldn’t save her, I couldn’t do anything to help her. Damn them. I think I know what they're going to do with her...' His mind raced as he tried to think of something.

They both could hear the double doors swing open to accommodate the size of the large discontented man in a white suit. He walked stiffly down the hall towards the dog's cell. He stood in front of it and simply awaited to be acknowledged.

The dog smelled the recognizable and detestable scent. He growled at him and turned his head to face the large figure.

"You should have known this would happen, Dustin." The man said in a gravely voice.

The dog jumped off of the cot and charged the door, stopping just a few feet before it. No way would he be fooled again into coming within striking distance. Dustin attempted to growl louder at him but choked instead and hunched with his head low and bared his teeth menacingly. Re-biting his hurt tongue, he let the few drops of blood from his mouth drip, hoping to appear intimidating.

"Oh I know what you were going to say so don’t bother. I'm the devil and blah blah blah. Bottom line is, you shouldn’t have tried to hide him. He is the Center's property, I don’t care if it does share your DNA. You submitted it freely. Don’t think I care if you’ve had second thoughts." He said as he knelt down to be more eye level with him.

'Albert you asshole, he’s not some mindless animal. He has a soul!' Dustin shot glances at Frank, briefly considering having him translate more Morse code. At the same time, he didn’t want Frank to get involved because Albert might punish Frank for choosing his side. Frank understood what Dustin was thinking and nodded at him while making the ‘tell me’ gesture with his hands. He would be willing to help the mute dog tell the asshole off. Dustin shook his head at Frank then glared at Albert.

Albert studied the dog's eyes and decided to ignore the fact that Frank was watching. Giving a slight nod at the dog as if to say that Frank is of no concern to him. Dustin was grateful for that and gave a slight nod back. He closed his mouth and simply glared at Albert.

"Dustin, you were our most trusted communications officer, why would you want to betray your only home for all these years? You had nothing but an interesting resume when you first walked in our doors and this is the thanks we get? Stealing one of our prized subjects by concealing him from us? Do you realize the trouble you put us through? No." Albert was shaking his fist a bit at every word then punched the wall in-between them. He glared angrily at Dustin. "This. This punishment isn’t even close to what you deserve. Be grateful for what you have now, if it were up to me you would have been dead yesterday, you traitor. The council thought differently and that’s the only reason you are alive right now, they bought you some time, that’s all. As soon as we get back the boy, well, accidents happen." He gave a suspicious smile at him. Albert stood up abruptly, dusted off his pants and as he walked, he waved at the dog. "See you around Mr. Hamilton." He said as he slammed the door shut behind him.

Dustin looked over to Frank: tap scratch ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta scratch scratch scratch ta scratch ta ta tap = 'Asshole.'

To which Frank nodded and middle fingered the metal door. Dustin spat out more blood and hoped it would stop bleeding soon, it was really disgusting tasting someone else's blood in the mouth. As soon as they heard the footsteps echo out of earshot they resumed their conversation.

"You ok over there err... Dustin?" Frank asked in reference to the blood.

Dustin nodded and made 'bleck' noises with the long tongue. The blood seemed to be slowing so he decided to keep the mouth shut so it would heal faster.

"Your name's Dustin Hamilton right? My name's Frank North as you probably already know."

The dog nodded his head slightly to one side as a greeting.

"So what else can you tell me about 'The Center'? Are there others like yourself?" Frank asked.

Dustin shook his head then cocked it as he tried to figure out exactly what Frank meant by that. Then after a short hesitation he figured he would answer the general question of the Center's inhabitants.

"Most of the chimeras died soon after they were created. People combined with animals in the most basic way. They tried to put young cloned human brains into large animals but the 2 different physiological structures of the animals skull vs the still growing human brain caused aneurisms." The dog seemed sad at the memory of those forced chimera's painful deaths and stopped tapping with his left foot. He had to put it out of his mind as he needed to get the word out about the Center. He shook his left paw back and forth and switched to his right foot to continue tapping.

Frank figured that it must be hard to communicate like that when those muscles involved haven't been used in that way before. Dogs do not normally tap their feet hundreds of times in a row.

Dustin then sighed and started again."They switched from that method and introduced their Magnititals. They are what cause Nina and Edward's bodies to change shape. It's complicated. I wasn't involved with that process besides my DNA being used. Only a few people have compatible genes to blend with the different animals. Ed is basically my clone, but I think of him like my son now. I couldn't let them use him anymore. When I found out he escaped, I tracked him down and I was able to lead them to Amystriss where I could keep an eye on them." Dustin stopped for a few minutes letting his feet rest.

Frank said, "Take all the time you need, that must be hard for you to do."

Dustin nodded and gave a slight smile. ‘I wonder if he could read lips? It will probably be hard to do but it's worth a shot, it would be a heck of a lot faster then Morse code.’ Dustin practiced moving the floppy lips around, making odd sneers and grimaces at Frank.

Frank just watched for a minute, becoming increasingly puzzled. "What are you doing there, Dustin?"

Dustin attempted to raise one digit on his front paw, the ‘one moment’ sign. That was harder then taping so he tapped out; "Can you read lips?"

"Umm maybe? Is that what you were doing?"

"Practicing. Gimme a minute." He tapped. Making a few more facial gestures that would resemble someone trying to lick peanut butter from under their jaw without their tongue, he then gave a determined sigh and look at Frank. "Caaaahhnnnn yyyoouul he-heeaaarrr mmmrreeee?" Dustin said at length in almost a whisper. His eyes low as he concentrated on moving the awkward muscles around in the right order.

"Did you just ask if I could hear you?"

Dustin nodded excitedly and practically danced in place.

Frank laughed then said, "Yeah I can hear you! Oh lord I'm talking to a dog! Who’d have thought that's how my day would go! Yes Sir, I think I'll be taking my sanity ala carte today, thank you!" Frank said laughing at it all.

Dustin couldn't help but wag his tail, noticing it he said, "Iiiihhhttt hhhaaass uh mmhiinnd oovv iiittz hown." Then licked his lips. ‘This aught to be a lot faster.’ He thought.

"Hey, it might be easier if you practiced saying the alphabet. I think you can give it a go. I can only imagine what that must be like to try to use something else's mouth to talk." He said then added. "Haha, ever watch that show Doctor Who? There was one where he regenerated into a different body and started talking, then stopped, then said 'New teeth, that's weird.' Hahah I always loved that line. That must be how it's like for you huh?"

"Yyyeeeessshhh, aaww biiht lawiiike hat... tttthhhaat." Then looked at Frank and quickly tapped out: " ‘TH’ words are hard."

"Then you should try a couple, this, that, then, thank."

The dog shook his head and waved his front leg as if to say don't worry about details. "Iihtt taakss soohm gheettiing uussedd tooo." Dustin cleared his throat, he was always a quick study on everything dealing with ways of communicating. That is one of the reason's he was hired by the Center. Even though Dustin could only manage a hoarse whisper, Frank was able to pick up on what he was saying because he had been in the quiet cell for months and had developed an acute sense of hearing.

"Ii hhope tthhaat tthheey ffoorrrggoot too fiixx tthhe awwdiioo hoonn tthhee caammerras. Ii bbrookke tthhem hoonn pperrpooss uuhh wweeek aagghoo. Ii ffeellt thhat ssommfin whas ggoona haappen sooon."

"You know, Ed has a gift of perceiving things that no one else can as well, but he told me once that he doesn't know how to verbalize it. He said that it's like, knowing what's good and bad from a feeling he gets. He's pretty good at sensing stuff so when he tells us something is good or bad, we pay attention. So it's a good thing you trusted your sixth sense." Frank said then realized what he had just said to a _dog,_ t hen busted out laughing in a mildly hysterical way. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I couldn't help it." Frank said wiping tears from his eyes.

"Thhaat's alriiighht." Dustin said and then thought, 'I guess I will just have to get used to it, pun's galore. I'll give this guy a break, he's had no one to talk to for ages and here comes the talking dog. I suppose I should be surprise he hasn't started climbing the walls.' he smiled and said, "Ssoo whhat's Eeddwahrrd liike? Ii oonly waatched frrom aa diistannce."

"Oh Ed? Well he keeps to himself a lot, he's always with his big brother, Jack. They go everywhere together, don't worry, Jack always looks out for him and makes sure he's alright. It's really thanks to him that Ed has come so far, ya know? Jack gets him to go out and explore the town, I think they've been to just about every nook and cranny in the city."

"Ssoo hhee's beenn goood?"

"Oh yes, he's really blossomed in our town. One of the top kids at his school is what they were bragging in my store. He's a real fast learner, it seems like all he has to do is hear or read something once and it's in his head for good. Just retains everything ya know? But he was still pretty shy around people, had to get to know them first before having a chat. I recall him asking me how to talk to girls, I think he might have a girlfriend in his class. Isn't that something?"

Dustin smiled to himself. 'I'm glad. I was afraid he wouldn't be happy being confined in the town, but it seems as if he likes it like that. I suppose it's all in what you're used to.' Dustin thought about how it must be because Ed was kept inside the Center's compound for the first years of his life that he simply felt at home in the fenced in town of Amystriss.

"Though I don't know what's happened since I came here 3 months ago, shoot, he might even be going steady with the girl by now." Frank said contentedly.

'I doubt that, if he's anything like me he's probably as lost as I was with women. But no reason to dash Frank's hopes...' He grinned up at Frank. "Noo dooubbt abbout iit."

"Yeah, your kid sure is growing up fast, I guess he will start looking like you soon." Frank said jovially thinking it was a nice thing to say to a father that couldn't be with his son. Suddenly he realized his mistake. "Oh God I'm sorry Dustin, I... just meant that he might look like you... did... shit I'm sorry."

Dustin looked sympathetically at Frank then sighed.

Frank thought of how he could back peddle out of what he just blurted out.

"Iiff hhe's annytthing liike mme, hee will alwayys bee shoort annd gaangly." Dustin said lightly. He knew Frank didn't mean any harm but he did strike a cord. 'I wonder if he will look like me... he has half my DNA and half of that Mainecoon cat. He might, at least his human form. Of course now I’ve gone and copied him by wearing this fur coat. Damn black and white, what color is this coat anyway? It's all shades of gray to me.' He twisted his head around to look at his back at the different patches of color, trying to remember what Ed's dog looked like. 'Damn, I wish I paid more attention to the dog. I think this is just black on top then dark brown then tan on the bottom. I think most dogs look like that. I'll just ask', "Ffrraannk?"

"Yeah?"

"Tthhis iss gonna ssounnd sstupid, bbut, wwhat coollor aam Ii?"

"What color? You mean you can't see colors? I just figured that you might because it's _your_ human brain right?"

"Yyeaah, bbut thhe doog's eeyes." He said and shrugged.

"Well you are mostly dark cinnamon brown with a light sandy colored stomach," he said taking a quick glance, "and your face has regular husky markings with those colors and ginger colored ears. Don't know the breeds, but looks alright together."

"Ohh, ookay."

"So, do you have like the dog's super sense of smell? Hearing?"

"Yyeahh, iit's ghetting annoyying!"

"Hahaha, I would have thought that would be awesome to have. You know?"

"Weelll moost peoplee doon't reallize thhat _eevverythhing_ haas aa smelll."

"Oh, well yeah, I can see how that would get distracting."

"Thhat's noot the weeird parrt, Ii haave mmemoriess of sscents, bbut Ii don't remmember whhat theey beelong too."

"Oh that is weird. Probably something the dog thought was important to remember and it just stuck. Hey! That means that he's not totally gone from the body. You said you don't hear him though?"

Dustin was shocked. What if he was only _sharing_ the body, it was hard enough to think of it as his own new body but now he felt like he was just a tenant in a rental. What if the landlord kicked him out!

Frank could tell he was distraught about something. "Talk to me Dusty, what's going on?"

"Wwhat iif hee kiicks mee out?!" He said frightened by the very thought.

"Kicks you out? What? You're not making any sense, who kicks you out?"

"Daan the Maan! Whhat iif hee kiccks mee ouut off hiss head?"

Frank narrowed his eyes as he thought about it, but he didn't want Dustin to get depressed about something he has no control over. If for some reason the mind of the dog was able to take back control, there was really nothing Dustin could do about it. Frank figured that there was no point in exacerbating the situation so to divert Dustin's attention he said, "They named their dog 'Dan the Man'?" Frank chuckled at the new irony. "Why on Earth did they name their dog Dan the Man?"

"Ii doon't knnow, cauuse iit ryyhmmed? Thhey'rre juust kiids." Dustin was distracted by the strange question and had to think about it for a bit. Coming up with a fairly feasible reason. "Mmaybe iit's to tthroow offf kiidnnapers? Iif soomeone ffounnd ouut abouut aa shhape shiifting peerson theey miight thiink iit's thhe doog iif yoou namme iit 'Daan thhe Man'."

"Yeah maybe. And it rhymes."

Dustin smirked and nodded.

"Yyeahh, tthat's proobably whyy." Dustin thought it was kinda funny because until recently it was Edward who was 'the man' and Dan had been just a dog.

'At least the family decided to get a big dog for Ed. I'd hate to be put into some yappy little lap dog's body, how humiliating would that be? But I suppose they had to get a big dog to help protect Edward on a day to day basis. Jack can't be there for him all the time. But then, how did the dog get caught in the first place? And now... now Ed doesn't have Dan to protect him. Shit. If a big dog like Dan was kidnapped so easily...'

"Ffrrank, diid yoouu hhearr thhe eelectrromaagnnettic ffiielld mmanipulllator turrn onn?"

"The what? Is that what they call that big ass thing?"

"Yeess diidd thheyy..."

"Yeah they turned it on a couple hours ago, after you left here as a person and before you came back as a dog."

'Damn it! They changed him this morning then again? This is bad, very bad.' He paced around in his cell fretfully, back and forth. "Hee's aa caat riightt noww. Thhey caan caatch hiim eeasilly!"

"Oh no. I thought at least he would be able to defend himself if he was human, but what chance does he have now? Shit. We gotta help him, how can we help him?"

"Ii doon't knoww."

"Is there someone else here who could help? Did you have any allies here?"

"Thheree iss onnne girrl... buut shhe hhassn't evven coomme foorr mee, soo Iii ddonn't knoow..."

"Don't worry Dusty, we're going to get out of this mess. We just have to come up with a plan."

Dustin scoffed at the idea. 'Plan, right. A dog and a shop owner coming up with a plan to save a family from the evil Center.' He stared at the ground. Frank could tell he was loosing hope.

"We can't just give up, Dusty!" Frank yelled at him. A silence engulfed the huge hall. In the faint distance outside, Dustin heard some people coming. He guessed why and smiled at Frank.

"Ggooodd bbyyee... annd goodd lluuck." Dustin meant it, giving him a grin.

Frank was suddenly very confused and then was able to hear the booted footsteps enter the next room outside of the hall. "What do you mean? What's going on?" Frank backed up from the door as 3 armed men strolled into the hall at the office end as one of them pointed at cell number 4. They marched on down and went straight to Frank's cell door.

One of them almost looked embarrassed. Another elbowed him hard in the ribs. "Well go on. Can't ruin a guy's life for no damned good reason and not say you're sorry."

"Shut up, ass. You thought he was number 15 just like the rest of us."

"Yeah but I wasn't the one that gave the order before checking with base first. You darted him the second you saw him leave the store. What kind of fair sport is that?"

"Alright alright, shut it." He shrugged off the guilt and motioned Frank to come forward.

Dustin was practically howling with laughter on the inside. 'I knew it, it just had to be 'Dr. Evil' Skullivan, that putz. Ha yeah let's listen to the fun assassin. I swear this place is a museum of idiots.' Dustin leaned over and recognized another puppet head as they were called around the Center, the newbies. 'Hahaha, Frank you got nothing to worry about, Robert Lowell over there is the Cap'n of this robot parade. You'll be fine. All they do is follow orders from that piece of dirt Albert like a bunch of brainless robots.'

Frank could see Dustin holding back his laughter even though none could hear him anyway. That eased his nerves as he remembered what Dustin said earlier. He was going to be released soon. Frank sauntered up to the door and leaned on it smirking. "Why did you grow a beard?" Frank asked him nonchalantly.

The man didn't know what to make of that comment as he looked back and forth at the others. "Erm, uh. I just wanted too." He cocked his head. "Anyways the point is, is that I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm... I'm sorry we kidnapped you. You will be released after a simple procedure. Hold out your arm." He said as the other men silently vowed to never let him forget this embarrassing moment.

"No."

"No? I just said you will be released. You can go home. You just have to hold out your arm."

"No." Frank said again like a stubborn child.

'Frank what are you doing? Get the hell out of here.' Dustin was about to tap out, then thought better of it. He didn't want to let on that they could communicate. He assumed that Frank had a plan. 'I hope he has one because no one knows my plan, it probably won't even work. What's he got?'

Frank had only a vague semblance of a plan. He was riffing. He knew that the others needed his help, and thought that he could save the day if he could figure out how to disable the master controls or something like the hero in a movie. But he'd have to give them reason to take him into the boss's control room. So, be hostile and they will have to take him to see 'the boss'. A small part of him realized that all that time spent alone in the cell had messed with his head more then he wanted to admit. He then worried that talking to a dog was one of the symptoms of his insanity, but still belligerently refused to be bullied around by these seeming real looking men with guns. Regardless if they were saying he was going to be released soon. It was going to be on his terms damn it!

"You are not going to inject me with anything until I talk to the boss of me. I mean... your boss, that big dude."

"Albert? You idiot we're taking you to him. Stick your damn arm out."

"Oh umm..." He felt himself loosing track of where he was going with it. His mind blanked out.

"It's ok. We're not injecting you with the H2G2 again. This is just a mild sedative so the Doc's and their candy stripers can wipe out the last 3 months of memory without side effects. It's simple and painless."

"Well, how do you know, have you done it?"

"Matter of fact we all have." The 3 men nodded and Frank leaned over to see Dustin shrug and nod as well. Frank's jaw dropped.

"You never told me that!" He said to the dog.

The men looked at each other then at the dog in cell 13. Frank immediately saw another mistake he'd made and kicked his leg. "That that... bee of the bird of the moth over there said that this was the hall of heads in the hell hotel. He... s _he_ must be working undercover for the man. How else could it know so much about... about stuff. She's a hotel detective." He blurted out hoping to sound like he was overcome by complete paranoia. The men just stood there. Frank raised his voice to sound even more insane and decided to start waving his arms around in a fury.

"You can't fool me anymore dog! C'mon let's get this over with." He said shaking a fist at poor confused Dustin as he jutted the other arm out of the cell wrist side up. "Take me to your leader."

The man in front was tired of the game and stuck the needle in as far as it would go. "Night freak." He said under his breath as the sedative took effect within moments. Frank's shaking fist slowed to a swing at his side as he fell gracelessly to the floor.

'Goodbye Frank.' Dustin said to him in his mind as the others dragged him halfway down the hall. They pulled up a gurney and wheeled him out the rest of the way. Leaving Dustin, alone, in the dimly lit room.

 

 


	12. Nightmares and Dry Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albert does a little digging into Ed's past.

Chapter 12 Nightmares and dry ice

 

 

 

"So Frank, I hope you had fun on the cruise. We wish you the best and on behalf of myself and the whole crew, Aloha." Albert said with a grin.

"Oh uh, yeah the ship cruise was pretty fun, I guess." Frank said somewhat confused but waved genially as he was led to a nice black car that was waiting to take him back to Amystriss.

Albert and his team had dressed up in Hawaiian shirts and laughed as they waved him off. Frank rolled down the window and waved back as the car drove out of sight down the dark wooded lane. "That's odd, I don't seem to have gotten a tan in 3 whole months." Frank said looking at his near paper white arms in the glow of the small light above his head. He looked up at the driver in the front seat and thought he didn't hear him the first time so he spoke up. "I haven't tanned at all, isn't that weird?"

"Oh well, maybe you put on a bit too much sun block, Sir." Mr. Skullivan said through his teeth.

"Oh right, I remember now..." he didn't, but thought that that must be it. "Can't wait to get home. I wonder how my store has been in all that time."

There was no further response from the driver so Frank settled into the seat and watched the moonlit trees out of his window and fell deep asleep for the rest of the ride. Mr. Skullivan was ordered by Albert to 'Put it back where you found it.' He grit his teeth but did as he was told, there was no point in arguing.

"It's funny how they never question the fact that there isn't even water around here." A woman in a pretty blue Hawaiian shirt said.

"Well, it does help that it's near midnight now and they can't see but a half mile away. Mostly it's just what they want to remember. The wipe always works best when replaced with a happier memory. As you know, when we just cleared their minds but left them with missing time they always had problems. Always trying to figure out where that time went and where they went within it."

Doris Cunningham nodded as she patted him on the back. "Well, I must say your substitutions do make it fun around here. Though I'd love to know how you came up with nearly a dozen Hawaiian shirts with only an hour to spare."

Albert smiled at her and thumbed his nose. He cleared his throat and called out to everyone outside. "Alright, let's get back in there, we aren't done for the night yet. We're simply going into 25 o'clock."

"Yes Sir." Some of them said as they took down the props from outside of the building that made it look like a vacation getaway office.

"And I want those shirts back fellas." Albert said as he went inside.

"Dang." Some grumbled but obsequiously put them in with the coconuts and palm tree props.

Albert walked down the main hall and passed some soldiers which he stopped and told them to take some food over to Janet's room.

"Something good, filling. I don't know if she's vegetarian so make up a large platter of every little thing. We want her to feel at home." Albert said in a light way but people that had been around him long enough were able to tell the hidden intent behind. They didn't interfere but they vehemently disapproved of his way of giving a false sense of security to those he intends to torture.

Albert continued on once he saw the few soldiers go into the cafeteria. The walls were no longer bleach white, but stained from time and lack of upkeep. Their funding was wearing thin and building cosmetics were not their top priority. Some of the rooms had to be shut and sealed simply to save on heating the underground facility. The building overtop resembled a simple but large cabin in the woods, surrounded by miles of fencing and training grounds well hidden and camouflaged amongst the trees. The left bedroom inside the cabin was actually the elevator to the lower levels of the Center. It was about 10 by 11 feet with a bed and 2 dressers that folded into the walls once the right code was punched into a keypad behind a stuffed fish mounted on the wall.

The guards to the Center were stationed around the clock inside the cabin and dressed like rugged hunters and fisherman, albeit heavily armed hunters. The rouse was sufficient for the very few passersby that happened upon the house that only needed to use the phone.

Albert loved disguises and costumes and had one for just about any conceivable occasion. The Hawaiian shirts however, were just for fun. He decided to continue to wear his around the underground Center to mess with people's heads. It didn't, most were used to him by now. Eccentric to say the least, he was still their leader. His ingenuity and determination was never matched by anyone else at the Center, however, people learned the sound of his footsteps and avoided him whenever possible. Some rumored that Albert purposefully wore loud footwear to alert people into getting out of his way. Whatever the case may be, the result was the same. Only puppet heads were too new to know better so they got the odd assignments from their chief. He clacked on down the hallway and had a secret smile on his lips as he heard people shuffle into rooms as he walked by on his way to his office. 'Keeps them on their toes' he thought.

"So, Edward. What have you been up to." He said as he sat back at his desk with a journal at hand. His chair squeaked and groaned with the weight, practically begging to be put down and replaced. Albert loved the sounds and kept the beleaguered chair. Flipping through the hand written pages, he paused at the few that looked like computer printouts. On a yellow note stuck to the first appearance of these pages read: Printed out from a 1999 OKGO transcriber with a violin microphone.

"A violin microphone? Oh, probably one for concertos. Those must be good quality recordings." He wrote down a note to have someone look for the audio tapes from the transcriber if there were any saved.

"Now then." He opened up a journal with a Polaroid on the cover, labeled: 'Late 2008' and the picture depicting Ed stealing a ride on Jack's bike.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

September 23rd, 08

Really cold outside today, about 50 degrees here and cloudy. School was boring most of the day but our science teacher Mr. Donovan showed us the effects that dry ice has on living tissue. After class, Jack and I played around with the huge chunk left over. Mr. Donovan told us if we were careful and used towels we could take the dry ice home with us. After what we witnessed in class today, we were going to be extra careful. That pineapple smashed into a thousand pieces! Jack said he didn't want his fingers to freeze off just by holding it and that gave me an idea.

I remember talking it over with Mom and Dad a month ago about having my tail taken off surgically but they said no, that it was too dangerous and blah blah blah, so Jack and I talked about taking it off by some other method. If we didn't let Mom or Dad know till after it's done it will be no problem. For awhile, Jack and I couldn't come up with any other way of taking my tail off until today. Jack had to be talked into it, he didn't want to see me get hurt but I told him that this would be nothing compared to the freedom of being able to go anywhere without worrying about the dang tail all of the time. It really does get to be a pain in the ass.

I mean sure, he did have a point. I would look really weird as a cat without a tail but I did some research and the Manx breed of house cats don't have tails. People would just think I was that special breed or something. I don't honestly care what they think, I just want it gone.

So Jack and I went to the safe house and took a bunch of towels, some rope, gloves and the whole 9 yards. Whatever we thought we needed to stop the bleeding once it was removed. We had to act fast because the dry ice was already getting smaller. It started off like a cinder block when we left school and it went to half a block at home and by the time we got to the safe house it was just 2 wall brick sizes big.

Luckily I was in human form because I wouldn't have been able to help him carry all that junk over there. I tied off the base of the tail as tight as I could and had covered my back and butt with several towels. I wish we had something to knock me out because when it first made contact, it was kind of numb for about 2 seconds but then it got a whole lot worse. It was quite possibly the worst pain I ever felt in my life. Once the surface was dead and numb Jack tied the ice tighter around the base of my tail so it wouldn't take so long for the rest of the inside to freeze.

I simply can't tell you how much it hurt, it was like I was on fire with ice. Prickling all over. I just remember screaming at Jack to get the ax off of the wall and chop the fucker off. But thankfully he was clearer thinking then I was and got out the really sharp knife from the kitchen and cut it off carefully with it seemed like 20 slices. I couldn't feel anything after the first one but I remember being yanked around as he went in between the cartilage and bones. I felt like a thanksgiving turkey being hacked up like that, but really, he did a great job. I can't imagine what it was like for Jack to do that but I still thank him for it. I wouldn't have the stomach for it. He told me later that it would have been worse for me if he had stopped before it was completely off, and that's why he kept going. He said that if just that area of skin and top layer of flesh died off it would have started to rot and puss and all kinds of nasty. Like the worst case of frost bite where it turns black and they'd have to take it off anyways, but it would have been even more painful for me, because I'd have to live with it longer. So in the end I'm glad he kept going carefully with the knife.

He did throw up a couple of times though, so that awful smell is something I will remember for a long time. Jack doesn't easily get grossed out so I can only imagine what he was looking at. Probably the arteries, tendons, muscles all trying to move... ok, now I'm grossing myself out just thinking about it.

He tied the second rope tighter around the 2 last vertebrae bones from my tail, the stump, but it started to bleed once it began to thaw out. I felt painfully cold and hot at the same time like a snowball in hell. I had to grab a wooden spoon to bite down on when the nerves were touched, and my cussing wasn't helping him out at all. I felt bad for making him feel bad for making me feel bad. I was the one that had to persuade him to do it because he didn't want to, and here I am cursing him out for the pain. But it was almost as if I wasn't there, like I was watching it all happen to someone else. I think I heard the kitchen sink filling up with water and saw some red towels sticking out. I also saw Jack run around the kitchen asking me where the sodium peroxide was. I never knew where it was in the first place and kicked myself for not thinking of sanitizing the area first before we started. Well, live and learn.

I don't remember too much after I saw my severed blood soaked furry appendage on the floor. It was almost like it was saying, 'You'll miss me' laying right next to the dinner table I was on like a bad horror movie prop. That's enough to make anyone sick. I tried not to look at it for too long but it was very surreal for me, I mean, there's my tail, right there on the floor. Not flitting about behind me letting everyone within eyesight know what I'm feeling all the frickin' time. I swear it was like a truth detector working against me. I can never lie when that thing just goes and blurts out in a tail waving fashion what's really going on in my head. It sucked 'cause I think everyone figured it out before I did. I'm just glad it won't be hassling me anymore. Good riddance!

I think I remember seeing Mom first and then Dad shortly after, unrolling white strips of gauze with some kind of goo they put on it. They told me later that I blacked out for hours and that one of my veins wouldn't stop bleeding. Mom had to quickly tie it in a knot to keep me from bleeding to death. The blood slowed but didn't fully stop until they put that goo on there. I think it's for like, birds or reptiles when their nails break. It's supposed to stop the bleeding instantly on small areas but they used the whole thing on my stump so I guess it can be used for that too. Not that we can actually tell anyone about how it can also help shape-shifting cat/men.

Anyway, when I was blacked out, I had some really really disturbing dreams. Like monsters of mud sliming around and bubbling in a small puddle while a guy in a space suit and a gas mask watched with big chunks of metalic rocket ship parts scattered all around. I had the incredible urge to yell at them that I should be allowed to think. Then the dream shifted into some people's voices, like from a mad house. One of them saying 'I blame you', another one was saying 'they can't be kind and gentle', and 'the bastard wants to hit me.' Then I was in front of a hole with a kid shouting, 'Dig my grave!' That last one scared the crap out of me and I woke up for just a minute until the pain meds mom gave me kicked in full gear.

I just remember thinking that it wasn't really a dream, or that my waking life was the real dream. I can't really explain it. It was scary, but oddly familiar. I was comforted by the confusing and irrational images my mind made up and I guess you could say it was like watching a really good movie you like because it's so scary or intense. There really isn't a better way I can put it, now that I get right down to it. It seemed, well, like home. When I was still conscious, I watched Mom cut the strings holding the rags down, then moved the blood soaked rags around to put on clean towels. It didn't seem odd to me at all. Like, this is what happens all the time. Seeing blood was normal. The pain felt normal. I can't tell Jack this, he would probably start asking dumb questions that I can't answer. All I know is what I feel, and it felt normal.

So anyway, I'm laying on my stomach right now in my room at home writing all this down. I don't know how long I will have to stay home from school because I feel really sick and dizzy. I don't know if I can get a blood transfusion or not. Ha, who would be the donor? A cat or a human? I think we can check this out later I mean, what kind of blood I have. I should get Jack to dig out that medical science kit thing he got for his birthday, he had a microscope and Petri dishes and some other stuff. When Mom was working for the hospital she got her hands on some equipment they were just throwing away. She and Dad cleaned them up and gave it to Jack years ago, before I moved in. The stuff might be somewhere here in the basement. Anyway, I'm still tired so I better get to sleep, need my strength and all that so, Goodnight.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

START RECORDING

 

September 24th, 2008.

Ok I think I got this thing working now. Yeah it's printing, dangit I guess I should get more ink soon. Right. Well, doesn't this just beat all. Journal, you'll never guess what happened today just because I turned cat. After all that trouble we went through yesterday, guess what's back. That's right. That sonofabitch tail of mine grew a solid foot today! I can't fricking believe it. It's not its full length but I think it will get there. Dammit anyway! Ok, I have to stop yelling at this transcriber, I'm getting dizzy again. Hang on I've got to lay down a minute. . .

 

START RECORDING

 

Ok I'm feeling better now, Jack went to get me some Pangal Blaster 'cause I can't reach it in the fridge. Thank you Jack. No problem, what are you doing? I'm taping my entry 'cause some of us don't have fingers. You do too just not now. I know that I'm just saying. So what have you been talking about. Nothing, just this fricken fuzz tube coming out my butt. That sounds disturbing, it's his tail everybody in tape land. I can call it whatever I want. Yeah but you'll gross people out thinking you're some kind of pervert. Takes one to know one. Right right. What are you still doing here Jack, this is private, you're using up all my transcriber ink. But it's so fun to watch this paper pop out with what we are saying right now, beep boop wamp wamp. Yeah yeah and the TV is full of wonders like magical shrunken cities, why don't you go back upstairs and watch the conquest of the apes with Dad and I will be up in a minute, I want to finish this first. Ok don't be too long, Mom's almost got dinner ready. Oh what is it? Your favorite, salmon casserole, you should thank her for going through all the trouble. Aw man she didn't have to do that, it's my stupid fault for getting sick, I should have just left the tail alone. That's right you should have, hahaha, but I'm no better, I was the one who actually chopped it off. At least you got good practice for when you become a serial killer, Jack. I think you're enjoying this a little too much, masochist. What is a masochist? Someone that gets off on pain, they love it. Oh that's just sick, Jack. Ok ok well get your shit together, drink your blueberry and c'mon upstairs, we eat soon as the movie's over. Ok, I'll be up in a bit. Oh wow it printed that whole thing? Well, I guess I'll wrap this up. Ummm so my tail is growing back, I'm sick from school for maybe the rest of the week and I'm going to go have some salmon casserole. ttfn.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

September 26th, 08

 

Well, I just got done reading my previous entry that printed out, and yes, my tail is the original full length since I changed back into a human this morning. Crap. Oh well, I guess we won't try that again.

So earlier today Dad helped us find the old science kit Jack got for his birthday from Mom's old hospital stuff, we found most of the testing equipment in with the 4th of July decorations. I don't know why but there it was. I saved a goobery chunk of my old tail in a plastic baggie I put in the freezer and marked it as such. Mom wasn't thrilled about it sittin' there right next to the frozen crab Rangoon's but left it in there all the same. We buried the rest of the tail in the backyard next to the shed. Mostly 'cause we didn't know what else to do with it, I mean what do people do with severed limbs? Jack says 'it's either your ass or a hole in the ground.' Anyways, we put a small bit of it on the slide and looked at it through the microscope. It didn't look like anything special so we looked at some of Jack's blood from a pin prick. We could tell a slight difference but nothing much. We both were more similar to each other then Dad's blood compared to Jack's which is what was really weird. Even Dad said so when he saw what we were looking at.

At first it looks the same but in less then a half hour, Dad's blood cells died and Jack's and mine kept going for hours and hours. My tail blood was of course dead after 3 days but what I am talking about is my fresh blood from a pin prick onto a fresh slide. We did the test over again using different fingers and new slides and still our blood cells lasted longer then Dad's. We eventually talked Mom into giving us a sample of her blood too and hers was like Dad's, the cells died after less then a half hour. We couldn't figure out why. Maybe it was because we are younger then them. I really don't know.

So we tried out different tests, and like before at the safe house, I felt at home doing the tests, all the Petri dishes and note taking. I kept feeling like there was something missing though, like what we had to work with was great but it seemed like we could have used more, I dunno, machines? I feel like there are big things that are missing from the room when we did those analysis. Jack's room, which is cluttered with clothes and junk to no end, seemed bare when we did our thing. There just wasn't enough stuff. Maybe not enough people? I dunno, I wish I could explain better. But still it was fun to do, for the first time in a long time I was relaxed at home. Something clicked in my head. Jack asked me if I was still dizzy from loosing all that blood just a couple days ago and I said no, and he said the reason he asked was because I had a stupid grin on my face. I think I actually did smile for no reason other then I thought it was fun. I swear Jack reads too much into things sometimes.

After a while we started getting bored looking at my cat hairs versus people hair, his fingernails versus my claws and stuff. Till Jack had the brilliant idea of introducing the magnet to the equations. The jerk thought he needed to make sure the magnets didn't loose their power since the last time we played tag with them and started sticking the strong ones everywhere. I couldn't pull 'em off fast enough and looked incredibly goofy in the mirror, patches of fur everywhere and one cat hand and pointy ear. After Jack was done laughing his ass off he finally took them off of me and put them next to the slide with my fresh human blood and it all twitched and closed in together, like miniature cold mice going into a huddle to keep warm. The fur and hair cells must die shortly after being pulled off of me 'cause they didn't react at all. I wanted to see my skin change shape so I had to hold really really still under the microscope as he put a magnet close to my hand but we had to fight to keep it from touching my hand. With all the moving around, my hand and his bumping into mine with the magnet it was next to impossible to tell what, if anything happened. Even though we know for a fact that my skin changes to fur and fur to skin. All depending on what form I'm in at the start. We ended up taping my hand down to the table with duct tape and then had the magnet move in to make contact and we took turns seeing what happens.

It was like some kind of horror movie watching the fur pop out of the pores and grow so long that it blocks out our view of what the skin cells themselves are doing. Then the magnet pulled off and it was like the skin on my hand sucked the juice out of all the strands of fur and they dried up and fell off of me and coated the magnet.

It was one of the weirdest things to see in super close up. When we ran out of clean slides to use, Mom came in and said that we needed to go to bed. We didn't realize it, but it was nearly 11 o' clock at night. So we cleaned off the slides with this solvent stuff and put it away. Jack is now upstairs above me and I can just make out him snoring as I write this. That guy could wake the dead if he was any louder! I swear!

So I'm getting kinda tired myself, I think I might hit the hay. One other thing I thought was cool, is that we found out today that I have faint stripes all along my body that follow the fur stripes when I’m a cat. We noticed it under the magnifying glass, just a line of different color so faint that you almost can't see it with the naked eye. Mostly my skin has always been like a gray shade and beige but under the microscope you can definitely tell where the black and gray stripes go. My arm hairs are also different color strips but no one has ever noticed before. Course it's not as if people like to lean in and take a good close look at other people's arm hairs! Most people don't even notice that I have just 4 toes. It's when I wear those flip flops that split the big toe off from the others that it really becomes apparent. That's why I like the sandals that cover most of the end of your foot. My feet are more or less straight out from my heel. Just like when I'm in cat form, I don't have that curvy thing that others have, where it gets all wide at the end. That, to me, looks weird. Almost like a seal flipper as their feet. I mean, why does it curve out like that? Human feet are not really well adept at running or agility climbing and even though other people are way more muscular and stronger then me, I'm able to get places that no one else can, and much faster too!

It's really weird to me. That's all I can say. I just think it's funny that some people from our old town say that _I'm_ the weird one, I disagree. My physique is more efficient then theirs. I think they are just jealous. Course what I would give to be as tall as them. This whole 4 ft 5 thing is well, really hard to live with outside of Amystriss. Here, I'm the average height so it's not so bad. I just wish... I dunno... I was just a bit taller. Society seems to think that height equals worth. But on the other hand if you find someone that is really tall, they get picked on too for being 'too tall'. There just doesn't seem to be a middle ground ya know? Jack is getting really tall 'cause he is 13 and a half and I'm, well I still don't know how old I am. 11? 12? Not as old as Jack that's for sure but I am growing faster then him so who knows, I might just catch up to him! Maybe then I will be as tall too! I should get some rest and I dunno, drink a lot of milk or something to get some height. I wonder if there is some way to do a test to see if we actually do grow when we sleep. Starting tomorrow morning I will start recording our heights and see if the differences in what we eat or do has anything to do with growing. Yey more tests! I guess I do get a goofy grin just thinking about it. Jack is right, but I don't think I'm about to tell him that!

So I guess I will write more tomorrow. Goodnight Journal :)

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Albert sat back in his chair that bemoaned its chairy woes as he moved it forward to his desk. He sat hunched forward and folded that journal so it made a tube-like shape in his hands while keeping a finger in place of where he left off. He twisted it in his hands as he started to visualize Edward's life outside of the Center's compound. Quite frankly he thought that Edward should have been up to some kind of mischief but nothing so far has indicated so much as a wet wad of paper spat at the teacher.

His first instinct told him that Edward was just laying low, he must be hiding his true nature under the guise of a silly misguided boy. He reread the last few paragraphs that were hand written in a kind of felt tip pen that blotched some of the letters where the pen rested for any length of time. Experience told Albert how to read people's handwriting’s and to interpret how a person felt as they were writing the words. The written words are like glimpses into the soul.

Albert looked at the swoop and curve of the 'L's. The dance of the pen as it wrote the words with 'TH', how the crosses of other T's went on to end in a slight hook at the end. The long slender lines of the J's and the abrupt thick lines of the A's horizontal line that never reached the other end. As well as the overall look of the writing.

He studied every line and word of the handwritten entry again and again, even flipping the page over to see it from the reverse side to get a 'second opinion' on the shapes. He looked and searched for some hidden meaning but reluctantly came to the conclusion that Edward was simply happy that day. There was no hidden intent and there was no secret meaning behind the words. He wasn't masking his feelings and wrote honesty on every page of that journal.

'The only thing different about these journals and any other persons' is that they were, without a doubt, written by our boy. For most of the earlier entries, they look like reports. The times events happened, the temperature, people's clothes, the sights, smells, and how he felt about it all. I trust his instinct better then most people's scientific facts. I suppose after writing all of the 'boring' information over and over, he started to elaborate on how his day was. Not just telling what happened like a news report, but a true reflection of how he sees his world. He is evolving, no, growing up. I should have noticed it earlier.' Albert thought to himself.

He sat back again and held the journal lightly, keeping his finger firmly on the page he left off on. He stared aimlessly at the ends of pencils that imbedded into his ceiling tiles from months of tossing them up to a spot over his head. Habitually throwing them up there to pass the long self imposed hours at his office. He sat back and looked at the way the shadows of the long pencils fell on the ceiling, wondering when they will fall, as a kind of pencil rain on top of him. He coughed and sat forward again. Moving his head in a particular way to crack his neck without using his hands.

Pop pop pop crack.

"Much better." He muttered as fresh blood flowed to his brain making him see little white lights shoot across his line of sight, as if they were miniature comets shooting through the air. One such tiny beam of imagined light shot out from his left side and faded nearly instantaneously as it hit a small brass plaque with 4 words on it.

"On Earth my Nina." He said as a slight smile crossed his lips that turned into a sorrowful grin. His eye let a tear fall as he whispered a lament.

"O do not forsake me." He said silently to the plaque as his eyes wandered up to a small bronzed pair of infant shoes. He traced the inside of the cold metal with his finger around to the frozen laces tied in a bow. Never to be worn again, frozen in time and in that blasted tarnished metal. Why did he let his ex talk him into bronzing the baby's shoes... More tears started to well up as he coughed to distract himself. He wiped them away and tapped the desk a couple of times with a worried and guilt ridden finger. He became very quiet and listened to the murmur of people outside of his office. Life out there was still going on, almost mocking him as he sat there mourning the beloved deceased.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly to calm his mind, he opened up the journal again and wiped his face with a handkerchief from his top drawer, tossing it lightly back onto the desktop for later.

"Now, where was I... right, September. Right after Edward cut off his tail and did those tests on himself..." He creased the spine of the book so it was easier to read.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

START RECORDING

 

September 29th 08

I don't know how it happened. I can't... tell you how much... it was just a dream I kept telling myself. I don't know what... to do. Do they know that I didn't mean it? Can they forgive me? Would they ever... damn it. I don't know how it happened. I still, it feels like it wasn't even me doing it but I can't deny that it was me that hurt her. I'm shit. I'm such horrible slime. I don't deserve their forgiveness. I should go and not ever come back. I'm so sorry, Mom. Could you ever understand that I didn't mean to hurt you? It happened so fast, and now, now they both act like nothing happened. I don't even know if Jack knows what happened, I hope not, I couldn't face him knowing that I screwed up, I... just... lost control. I can't think straight right now, it happened so fast that I can't even tell what happened first. Who yelled first?

I guess I should start from the beginning. When we all went to bed the house was fine, happy. I thought I heard some kind of song drift down to me and I fell so deep asleep that, well it was like a lullaby to nightmares. . .

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

As the TV in the master bedroom blurbed to itself about the latest and greatest in kitchen gadgets, a worried murmur drifted around the house that night. Originating from the basement, the sounds made their way around the house through the exposed ductwork of the first level floorboards, till they reached the master bedroom. One particular fretful cry was heard above the infomercial and woke up Janet.

She sat up in bed and listened intently for a minute, trying to figure out if it was the TV or one of the kids. She looked among the folded bed covers and pulled out the remote from under Henry's shoulders, waking him up.

"Mmm? What's up?" He asked half asleep.

"Shhh, listen for a bit." She said quietly.

She turned off the TV and they sat still. They could faintly hear someone talking in the house. Henry stood up abruptly and reached into the closet for his baseball bat. Janet wasn't paying attention, looking in the direction of the vent when Henry started for the door with an angry stride. "No wait, it's not someone breaking in." She pointed at the vent. "I think it's from the basement. Ed must be having a bad dream." She said as she went for her robe.

Henry put the bat down on the bed and they both tip toed down the hallway past Jack's room. Jack heard some of the floorboards creak and woke up in a blur. "It can't be morning yet..." He muttered as he rubbed his eyes. He flipped over the alarm clock so it shown in bright green numbers that partially illuminated his room, 4:08. He yawned and then heard the creaks coming from the steps leading downstairs.

'Huh? Why would Ed be up here? He's got his own bathroom downstairs.' Jack staggered to his feet and went to see what was going on. He felt like he could use a midnight snack at any rate while he was awake. He made his way down the hallway, avoiding the louder floorboards by accident, walking haphazardly along due to the fact that it usually takes him a good half hour to fully wake up.

As he got closer to the stairs, he realized that his parents were nearing the bottom steps to the basement. He got down on his hands and knees and quietly backed up from the stairwell at the top so he could hear them downstairs, but not be readily detected.

The worried voice emanating from the large bedroom went from a vague ominous noise to a slow increasing panic followed by a shuffling of fabric.

Janet held onto Henry's arm as he shown a flashlight into the room, scanning it around to see where Ed was. They watched as he tossed and turned, fitfully kicking about in his bed. His fur was damp with sweat and his tail twitched about making thumping sounds on the covers. When he is worried about things he can't control, his tail always belies his agitation. Tonight, it was clear that he was frighted.

Looking at how small feline Edward was on the tall twin bed made Henry think that if he should fall off the side now, it would be as if he himself fell off of the roof of the house. He made a mental note to lower the bed's legs or simply put the mattress on the floor so a drop wouldn't be so great. The first days after Ed started changing shape while living with the family, they had to rethink bedding for him because his beloved fluffy pet bed would often turn foot cozy in the morning. The family knew that Edward was such a heavy sleeper that he wouldn't even wake up to transform, even though the shape-shifts were painful. There had been several nights when he would go to bed as a human and wake up as a cat and his sleepy mind wouldn't immediately recognize the big difference in size. He would swing his hind legs off the two story bedside, and if his feet were not immediately greeted with the cold hard floor, they would find _air_ first. Irrevocably, he would soon meet the cold, and unforgivably hard, cement floor usually in a sore heap a second later. The only being alive with this problem.

Henry shook his head to what was going on right now, the problem with the bed can be fixed later. He shown the light at the end of the tall twin bed and noticed that the majority of the covers were kicked off of the side. One corner still covered Ed as he became agitated and his breathing was haphazard at best. Henry looked around the rest of the room scanning for what might have triggered the bad dream. They knew that Ed loved to watch some TV before bed, but it was off and there were no books or magazines out for him to get a lasting impression before sleep. No horror film or scary story. Henry looked back at Edward as he kicked more as if trying to escape and flinched at an imagined blow. He whimpered as he started to talk again.

Janet stopped shortly after entering the room. All they heard was what they assumed was his side of a conversation that echoed only in Edward's mind. It was painful just to hear him fret, but he was finally giving clues about his past. They knew that Ed wanted to learn about his past more then anything, and so they put everything he said now to memory, at first, planning on telling him what he said later.

"No, Sir." He cowered under the thin covers, still asleep but fidgety, his cat form looked very small and feeble on the twin bed. Janet held Henry's hand as he let the light drop from Ed's face to a spot just in front of him. The white sheets reflected the light back onto him in a soft glow rather then spotlight.

"Yes I tried Sir... no please, no Sir. I can't do it. I’m sorry." He started to fret. His tail became erratic, swishing and twitching back and forth as he laid on his side. His head curled in a bit. "No Sir, please don't get the colonel. I will do better. I promise!" He paused and winced with his ears flat back. He had been struck hard.

"Oh Edward..." Janet said softly in sympathy.

"No no no _please_!" He moaned as if he was in great pain. Janet moved quietly to his bedside and sat in his computer desk chair. Moving it slowly closer to Ed, she was very sad to hear him worry. The truth isn't worth this much pain. She reached out to console him but suddenly she jerked her hand back when he burst out shouting, "I can't kill again! Please don't make me kill anyone again, please, no Sir. _I can't, I can't, no."_ He bawled and cried while still asleep. "No, no Sir please, stop! Stop!" He trashed about with his legs and clenches his teeth apparently trying to get away from some unseen attacker. At that moment, Janet reached over to calmly and gently wake him up. She lightly touched his fur and he immediately screamed and swung his arm around and clawed at her hand.

Scared to death, she recoiled her hand and fell back into the desk chair as Henry let go of the flashlight. When it landed it made a loud bang on the cement floor and set Edward off in a blind panic. Edward believed he was being attacked, and recoiled from the huge dangerous people by throwing himself violently up against the back wall trying to get away from them.

"Ed wake up!" Janet shouted as she reached out to steady him again.

Confused and hurting he slumped down against the wall where he landed as his eyes darted around the room, waiting to be attacked again. When he stopped shifting around and backing up his eyes adjusted to the dim light from the fallen flashlight reflecting off of the wall and illuminating the room. Still panting and scanning his new surroundings, he eventually recognized those huge people to be his parents.

Janet reached for a tissue from the computer desk, and just out of his sight she put it over the small gash on her hand, quickly wiping away the thin line of blood. She turned back to face him with a reassuring smile. She was simply glad that the nightmare he was having was over.

He looked up to her face and with a small quavering voice he said to her, " _Oh Mom..._ " He walked over to her from the corner of the bed once he came to his senses. Slowing down his breath and holding it at times, he was slowly able to calm his racing heartbeat. He smelled something very familiar and looked down at Janet's hands and noticed that she had a red tissue pressed into the palm of her hand. He was shocked at what he had done and he started to stammer an apology. She waved her other hand in an unconcerned way and smiled at him to show it was ok. She stood up and sat on the bed right next to him as he slumped down cursing himself for viciously wounding her. She reached out to him as he tried to shy away from her forgiveness.

With one move she pulled his little body over and onto her lap and gently hugged him for what seemed like hours. Henry stood back and watched quietly as Janet consoled him by gently rubbing his ears and wiped away a few tears from his coat. Edward sobbed quietly as his body went limp, emotionally exhausted. Janet held him tighter and shushed him back to sleep, rocking back and forth. In a voice that could have been mistaken as a breeze she said, "It's ok now, you're safe. Shhh you're home now. You are ok, I’m here now, momma's got you. You are safe. No one's gonna hurt you." She said over and over while rocking back and forth with him. He finally relaxed into her warm robed arms, letting go of all defenses. He thought that whatever she decided to do with him was up to her. He felt that he deserved punishment for wounding her and would not fight back in any way.

Janet had no intention of retaliating, she was always a forgiving and comforting mother. Tears fell, and she hugged him tighter, consoling his worried mind.

Jack heard his father leave Edward's room and walk towards the stairs, so Jack went back to his own room without being seen and left his door open just a crack so he could hear what was going on.

Janet carefully picked Edward up and took him back upstairs into their bedroom where Henry was now waiting. Henry put the baseball bat back into the closet and straightened the sheets of the bed and pillows to allow for another occupant. "He had another bad dream, that's all." she said.

Henry nodded sympathetically then said in a low growl, "If I ever meet those assholes, I will kill them myself."

Janet motioned with her free hand to quiet down. Henry pulled back the covers in the center of the bed and Janet placed her sleeping son down on one of the soft decorative pillows. Henry turned off the lights and got into bed. Janet went around to her side picking up something out of sight, then she curled up in bed facing the other direction. She waited until Henry was asleep before uncovering her hand and dabbing the wound a bit with the new tissue. There was no reason to worry Henry about such a small scratch, so she folded the tissue and held it in place with the same hand and fell asleep.

Jack sat on the floor just inside his bedroom as he listened to his parents and brother finally sleeping peacefully in the next room. After half an hour he made his way downstairs and into Ed’s room. He looked at the disheveled bedspread and straightened it then sat down on top of the covers, trying to piece together what happened in Ed’s dream and if it was actually something that happened, or if it was just a random nightmare. He pondered for nearly 2 hours until he too fell asleep.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Albert thought about all that he had read and actually started to feel bad for Edward. Here was one of the most advanced beings the Center had ever created in the past 14 years and he doesn't even know who he is. Albert sat very still and reflected on that last entry. He thought to himself, 'What exactly did Edward do to feel so bad? Did he really maul his adoptive mother? I wonder if his training kicked in at some inopportune moment. He claimed to not know what happened so I bet he either blocked it out or was sleepwalking. I remember that was always a lingering problem with him and Nina. They would have random spurts of violence. Perhaps we pushed them too hard too fast.'

'Still, I don't understand why he feels so depressed, if that incident was truly an accident he shouldn't feel bad about it at all. It seems as though he's very confused and angry at himself for loosing control. Edward apparently has a conflicting mind about a lot of things.' Albert suddenly laughed a bit when he realized that he was starting to call number 15 by his new name. 'No, it is only right for him to have a name. Any being that realizes he exists and has a place here on this Earth should have a name. After all, Nina had a name from the start. I insisted on it. Nina would never be called 'Sixteen'. At least not within earshot of me.'

"Edward." He said thoughtfully. "If you are no longer 'Fifteen' then who are you now?"

Certainly those at the Center had a plan for him, they worked very hard to prepare him for a very important life. They had given him a very unique gift, but it wasn't what _he_ wanted. Albert sympathized with Edward's quest to find out who he was, even though it gave him terrible nightmares. The unknown was far scarier to Edward then anything that he managed to remember.

As Albert read on, through at least 4 solid journals in the few hours he had them in his possession, nearly all throughout he couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to console Edward. To tell him that it was all going to be alright once he knew what he was meant to do.

'Perhaps if he knew what his role in the greater good was going to be he would stop running from it and embrace it. I have to admit that keeping Edward in the dark was the worst decision I have made. It created a rift in his mind, only seeing what the others at the Center wanted him to see, to believe. The psychologists the others had hired were probably closet masochists. Thrilling and enjoying the thought of torturing the minds of new beings that had no past. Keep them confused, teach them that abuse is life, and that there is nothing worth praise more then completing the mission, even if it should kill them.' Albert understood the Center's methods, perhaps better then they did. His goals were similar enough to theirs, that he didn't mind their methods all that much.

He was the only one with enough charisma to get this group of disjointed scientists together and on track. He went along with it because the Center granted him power, and a single promise kept in exchange for Albert's vast wealth and experience. Albert would sometimes wonder if he sold his soul to the Center in exchange for something that was a lie. All too late. 'Did I also sacrifice the souls of the innocent? In order to delude myself into believing that this was what I wanted in my own reality?' He sighed heavily and took a swig of Hot Cha! whiskey from a thermos in his desk drawer. 'The life of Ed,' he wondered, 'is such a sad story, will it have a happy ending?'

'It's not my fault that they expected so much from him. My job was to teach him how to behave like a normal human being. I can't be expected to undo all the damage they had done. How could anyone be expected to live under the radar with all that knowledge about how to take down anyone with just about anything. The ability to kill a grown man using only a small fist wielded by a 40 pound kid! I can only imagine him in a crowd. Instantly and unconsciously calculating how to drop any given target and still escape unseen. Even though it seems he lost his memories, the instinct and knowledge must still be in there. His training was complete. How can I possibly teach someone like that to act like an innocent child. I'm actually grateful the Center decided not to pursue that aspect of his ultimate role with us.'

'Nevertheless it's still in there somewhere, even though we went a different route you can't wipe that kind of training so easily. We can't allow him to continue to live out in the public eye. If not for the good of the Center then for the good of the public! I'm amazed the training never kicked in when he and that boy, what's his name... Jack... roughhoused. I guess he never saw Jack as a real threat. But who knows what he could do now that he has been awakened and unleashed. We have to rein him in, wipe his mind and start over. All that life experience and work gone to waste. First things first however, how to find him.'

As he sat back pondering what to do if they should ever actually catch Edward, he started to think what Edward would do in his current situation. 'Here he is, on the run from some monster from a nightmare. He clearly wants to escape and run, it was what he was programmed to do if or when he was found out. Run until he is caught or returns... home.'

Albert shot up from his chair and went to the L 5 boxes and dumped out the contents all over his floor. The 30 some odd journals were tossed about and scanned rashly.

"Where is it! Where did I read about a safe house? It has to be here somewhere!"

He tossed them here and there, flipping through the pages like a picture flipbook, until one journal tripped him up and he fell on his side. Cursing at it he grabbed it roughly and wound up his arm to throw it out into the hall when a photo was loosed from its paper bindings and flitted to the floor. Albert caught the journal with his other hand and studied it for a second, then jerked it open and tore out every crayon drawn picture from its spine and laid them out onto his desk, clearing away all of the trinkets, mementos and office supplies onto the floor in a loud cluttered heap.

'A photo from a lake house, no, there is only a river in that town, and their old city as well. Neither had a lake. Here's a picture he drew of himself as a cat and human with what appears to be the rest of the family, I don't see a house.' He tossed these pictures onto his chair as he stood in front of his desk. He scanned the journal debris on the floor and found some more drawings. Snatching them up he went from one to another and another. 'Now we're getting closer, this must be their old place, the house in this picture has no trees in the front yard and a tall tower behind it. The house they lived at in Amystriss had much larger side trees but no garage. So I'm looking for some other house he would think was important enough to draw or take a photo of.’

‘Another family photo of a picnic in someone's beautiful backyard’ he flipped it over, ‘nope this is the aunt's house. This is one of the mother's store, some more vacation photos on some mountain side. Hmm, must be the other side of Amystriss, I think I can see some windmills in the distance... yeah, right there. Dammit. I know I saw or read something in here about a safe house! Where else would he go to? Surely he would realize that we would find out about all of his relatives, their work places, and even restaurants that they liked.’

He brought the pile of pictures down to the floor and sat Indian style in the middle of the nest of journals. ‘It's something I'm missing. Something obvious. Where would it be? It would have to be off the city's registry. Somewhere unmarked or labeled. There probably isn't even a street name. And how could this low income family afford a second house anyway? It would have to be in pretty poor shape or in a bad neighborhood ... or both.’

‘No, what am I thinking. This is Amystriss. There are no 'bad sides' to it. Eden indeed, I doubt they ever even had a shop lifting incident. I need to get a better look at that town. All those men we sent in and still nothing, just one possible hit next to the river. Nina reported to one of the recruits that she smelled the brother's blood all the way to and downstream of the river but soon as they spot them in the distance those idiots started firing at the boys. Thank God she reached them in time and made them stop shooting or there would be nothing left. Maniacs. I'll have to find out who gave the order 'shoot to kill' and have _them_ in front of the firing squad. Where was that spot exactly, where were they going? Where is that damned safe house? It must be in that town. The whole place is fenced in with security guards, they couldn't leave without someone noticing.' he thought to himself as journals and pictures went flying about everywhere. 'There must be some way for them to leave town. I just feel it in my gut that Ed would find a way out of the town, or at least a hiding place till we gave up looking. If he was anyone else we probably would scrap the search in a week but this is Number 15 we're talking about. We can't let him slip off the radar again.’

Albert hit the emergency buzzer under his desk and a heavily armed man ran into the room with a mean looking rifle, ready to fire, and pointed the barrel to a spot on the ground just in front of Albert.

Albert smiled genially at him. He recognized the soldier as the very same one that ran in the last time. He smiled because he was pleased to find out that crying wolf would always work on him. The soldier, however, thought of ways of ending this game Albert insisted on playing and fantasized about simply shooting him and later saying it was mistaken identity. But before the soldier could think of an escape plan if the assassination should fail, Albert cut in, "I want you to bring me all the maps we have on Amystriss. You could find them at Dustin's old work station I bet. That little furry fucker may help us out yet. I'll also wager he has a whole pile of different kinds of maps as well. I want everything. Sewers, electrical, housing, commercial, hell even maps of the farm lands and factory layouts." Albert smiled again. "Well go on now." And shooed him out the door with a wave of his hand.

The soldier nodded and put the safety back onto his rifle. 'Albert probably would have just caught the bullet in his teeth at any rate.' He thought as he made his way up to Dustin's office.

After 23 minutes, the heavily laden armed soldier entered Albert’s office and tossed all of the 42 maps onto the floor in front of him. He saluted and turned heel and left before Albert could ask anything more of him.

Albert shrugged and laid out the 4 building drawings Edward had done and went through the few journal entries that mention the safe house, deducing that it was far enough away from their house to have a half a block of dry ice evaporate into 2 bricks worth. He calculated the walking distance and drew a circle around the boy's home and then started to X out the unlikely areas for a safe house to be located. 'Edward mentioned a kitchen, so the house had running water. He mentioned electricity from a lamp pole in another journal entry and how the house could only run 4 electrical items at the same time without tripping the surge protector. So it wasn’t on any main grid.'

"That narrows it down quite a bit." He said aloud with a swipe of his black marker. He blacked out all the main streets that had ample power and visibility from neighbors. The safe house was 'in the middle of nowhere'.

"So that means that it must be in this lower left quadrant of the circled area. So what’s down there. What kind of building would be cheap enough for them to afford and be off the building zone map here."

He thought and thought of all the possibilities. 'Ok, their mother transferred from a sewing shop from her old town called Chaos by Design but that doesn't have a branch in Amystriss. So now apparently she part-times at an art boutique called Birdhouse in your Soul, but also works for a quilting shop downtown, I wonder where their warehouse is. Ok... no, they don’t have a warehouse. Where does the father work.' He poured over the report he had gotten from the junior communications officer that had just recently become the senior comm. officer due to Dustin's premature 'dismissal'.

'Looks like the father has been in several locations since moving in. Lucky Ball and Chain Construction, where he quit right after becoming employee of the month... odd. Now he works for... oh, looks like several branches of the same company. Construction work.'

He scanned the different jobs and areas that this main construction company had and something nagged at him. Something clicked in his mind but he couldn't pinpoint it immediately. He tried a different method. Lately he had taken to looking at things, quite literally, backwards. He flipped the paper around and held it up to the light and could just barely read through the list again. Then that entry caught his eye and held it, he spun the paper around and shouted, "I found you!"

He jabbed his finger at the branch labeled; 'Custom built model homes, ready for viewing or moving.'

"That clever bastard stole a whole house! That father," He double checked some notes to make sure he got the name right, "The dad, Henry, probably either moved it or they left it at this area here that used to be just an empty grassy field back when the town was first starting off. Now it must have grown over with trees and is no longer on any current maps of the town because it was never 'there' to begin with. It has no mailing address because mail was never delivered to it. Oh hell, why didn’t we think of that for our field agents?!"

People passing by couldn't help but hear the elated hollers coming from Albert's office and decided it best to move on quickly before... too late.

"Everybody get in here!" He called out into the hall as nearly 20 people cursed their luck in their minds.

 


	13. Live Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Eagles are coming! And they are pissed!

Chapter 13 Live through

 

 

 

"Geez it's getting cold out now."

"And wet. I can actually see the mist coming around from the south. What did Dad say? The valley effect?" Edward asked, inbetween leaps through the tall grass. His fur was nearly soaked with the newly forming dew.

"Hmm?"

"Something about how the fact we live in a valley with mountains all around, all that mist and fog just congregate on the lower areas." Leap. "It dissipates by morning so it's no surprise you don't see it that often." Jump. "On the nights that I stay up and walk around the park it's almost always foggy for hours. Kinda nice really." Edward paused to shake off the excess water from his fur coat and then took a few more jumps to catch up to Jack who was still trudging along in the tall grass.

"Yeah, maybe the mist will help us sneak around better huh? Ha! What was it you were saying earlier? How nature was helping us escape. I guess it's following us." Jack said as they walked in the fields that ran parallel to the street, far enough from the street to not be spotted easily by cars, but not too far to loose track of where it was going.

Houses were becoming more scarce as they ventured off to the western side of town. Long fields stretched out before them, dotted with a cluster of trees here and there, on the spots where some lawnmower missed a dozen years ago. They were headed towards the forest that hugged the western wall of mountains, and 'spilled' out into the town's boundaries over the years. The safe house was well within the forest, on a dirt road that they were heading to intercept. They could hear the odd animal move about the grass and run away from them as they walked. Edward tried trotting at first beside or in front of Jack with his head held high, just so he could see above the grass then opted for walking directly behind Jack in his footsteps that trampled the sharper blades of dead grass. When the occasional bat flew overhead, Edward couldn't help but follow it with his ears as it echo-located its way around the trees. He could see it clearly up against the blackness with his keen eyesight as it caught bugs in the starry night sky. A lone cloud covered part of the moon giving it an eerie resemblance to which Ed said, "Hey look, it looks like the cloud is the nightgown of the sullen moon. See how it looks like one of those long t-shirts that Jen goes to bed in?"

"Brownie points for the word ‘sullen’, you learn that word in class or something?"

"It means cloudy, like foggy. And yes we did cover a poem in English last week called ‘Lazy head and sleepy bones’ by some guy named Koenigstein, he was talking about how some women and men were sleeping in the flowers one night and turned into sleepwalkers. In the poem they would wander around town just saying 'bed bed bed bed bed' until they finally reached their own houses and wake up all alone. It's kinda a weird read if you’ve got the time, but you’ve got to be patient because it takes awhile to get to the good bit."

"Yeah sounds interesting."

"Hey Jack, what time is it?"

"Oh umm, lemme check." Jack put down the backpack and rummaged through it looking for his cell phone.

"You don't have a watch?"

"No, not one that works anyway, I'm wearing Dad's old watch but it's broken. Just looking for my cell..."

"Yeah, cell phone? We threw those in the sewer remember?"

"Oh right, it's weird not having it, I never go anywhere without my cell."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry about having to throw them away."

"No worries, Ed. As for the time, it's umm, late. Maybe you can sneak a peek in someone's house and check out a wall clock or something."

"Nah, it doesn't feel right window peeking. Jen just about knocked me out when I looked in her window."

"Hahaha really? I was wondering what that thud was! Is that when you saw her in her nightgown? Peeping tom-cat." Jack chuckled.

"Shuddup, c'mon. We're not too far from the safe house, let's just get there."

They walked along for only a few more steps when Edward heard something coming up incredibly fast behind them. He leaped in front of Jack, crouched down and yelled up at him. "Jack! Get down!"

Jack had just enough time to hit the ground when several large black phantom like silhouettes flew right by his head.

"Gah! Get off me!" Edward shouted as he tried to fight off one of the winged shadows. He felt huge sharp claws dig into his back as he tried to flip over and bite at it. "Rrrgh! Let go of me!"

Jack swung a fist at the shadow and heard a piercing screech come from it. His left arm began to sting and he quickly realized it was a huge dark bird that had dropped Ed to the ground and spun around and started beating its wings against him as it went in for his neck. Scrambling up Jack's left arm, clawing and biting the whole way with its enormous wings flapping to keep it balanced, it's attack was relentless. Jack attempted to push the huge bird off of him as he frantically tried to locate his little brother. The winged nightmare took off from Jack's arm, circled around and dove into the tall grass. Jack clutched his left arm with his right hand and shouted wildly around for his brother.

"Dammit! Ed where are you?" He couldn't see his black and gray brother through the tall dark grass as it swayed with the wind. There was no light, save for the moon. Jack could hear Edward's menacing growl close-by so he fell to his knees and tried to feel out his brother.

The first shadow leaped into the air from the tall grass and hovered overhead for only a second, playing decoy. A second black shadow came screeching in towards Jack from behind and started to tear up the backpack. The force of the lunge made Jack fall right next to Ed as Edward was nearly airborne.

"Jack!" He called out from behind a flurry of feathers.

Jack couldn't reach the one on his own back so he went for the other that was fighting Edward. The clouds parted for a moment to let the moonlight through, and so they finally saw that they were fighting 2 dark brown Harpy eagles that are now almost twice their normal size and infinitely more vicious. Jack was able to grab a hold of the massive eagle that clutched firmly onto Edward's back and neck with its hooked talons. Jack held the winged monster away from his face as he tried anything to make it let go of his brother. All the while shifting his weight to the left and right to knock the huge bird on his own back off balance.

Jack held onto the bird's neck as he swung his free hand out and punched it hard. The eagle bit Jack's hand but let go of Edward first, then took off haphazardly into the sky. Edward landed awkwardly on the ground in front of Jack and scrambled underneath his older brother for cover on pure instinct. Edward was panting hard and in incredible pain but still could smell Jack's fresh blood and realized that there was a second eagle on top, clawing and biting at Jack's head and shoulders where he couldn't reach it to pull it off.

Edward was furious and ran around behind his brother and lunged at the bird with all of his strength. Together the bird and cat tumbled headlong over Jack's head and landed 5 feet in front of him. Jack yanked his head up and saw Edward go for the bird's neck. It didn't matter to him that the bird was twice his size.

"You son of a bitch!" Edward hissed at the bird as he leaped onto its chest knocking it onto the ground as it again tried to escape into the sky. After a brief struggle he pinned it to the ground with his own claws firmly hooked into the bird's wings. The eagle was unable to reach Edward with its beak and instead tried to disembowel him with its feet. Without thinking, Ed opened up his mouth as wide as he could and grabbed a deadly hold of the eagle's neck and jerked his head to the side to instantly snap it.

The bird cried out and slowly stopped kicking. Edward's eyes blazed at the huge monster and tasted the thick warm blood in his mouth, subconsciously swallowing as much as he could as he held firmly onto the neck, digging in as far as his teeth would go.

Jack staggered to his feet and watched Ed jerk his head back and forth in a violent fit of rage. Jack cautiously looked up and around them to make sure the other one wasn't about to swoop down and attack again. He thought he saw a black figure in a nearby tree. It stared at him but did not move. Jack walked over to Edward while keeping an eye on the other one.

"Ed." Jack said tentatively, half limping over to him."Ed, you can stop now." He held onto his left arm that burned and bled on the tall grass. He slowly walked closer.

Edward bit the bird's neck again and growled. His fur danced with adrenaline surging through his veins.

"Ed, it's ok, you're done... it's dead." He said as he got down on one knee next to him, raising his right hand slowly to rest it on Ed's shoulders. Not sure if his brother would turn on him next, he tried to give the appearance of being calm and nonthreatening.

Edward slowly came back to his senses, and let go of the bird's neck, letting it fall to the ground. He was panting hard and looked around himself, apparently not seeing Jack at all. Licking his lips and coughing up some of the feathers, he scanned the area. His tail thumped the ground loudly showing his agitation. "Where are you, you asshole." He grumbled.

"The other one is in that tree, over there." Jack pointed and looked up the tall honey locust tree.

Edward started to run at full speed towards that tree, looking directly at the other eagle standing on a limb close to the top.

"Ed stop! It's over! Come back!"

Edward would not be dissuaded. He leaped up onto the lowest limb and painfully started to climb up the tree. The eagle sat at its perch and watched as Edward struggled up the tree. Ed was bleeding and sore but fueled by rage. As he neared the branch the bird was in, he was panting severely and his vision started to blur. Distance became immeasurable. "Get over here you asshole. I'll finish you off like I did that other one." He taunted, panted, and growled at the bird that sat hunched forward in front of him. He reached the branch and rested for a second, hoping that he wouldn't have a heart attack as his heart was pounding against his chest so hard that he had to dig claws into the bark to keep himself steady.

The bird took a couple of intimidating steps towards him and showed off his bloodied talons, taunting right back. The bird opened its mouth and hissed at him. Even though Edward's vision was deteriorating he could still tell color. The eagle's claws and mouth were covered with Jack's blood. Edward could smell it all over the bird and he was enraged by it. He dug his nails into the bark with each step as he walked along it to the end of the branch. The eagle lowered its head and opened its wings at him. Just as both were ready to pounce and strike, a large rock sailed into the space between them, making both stumble for better footing. Another rock sailed towards the bird and hit its wing. It swiveled around angrily to see where the projectiles were coming from and Edward saw his chance, he leaped onto the huge eagle from behind. Knocking both off of the branch, they continued to fight as they fell towards the ground far below.

Edward dug into the bird's back and bit the base of its neck over and over as both of them tumbled and crashed against the branches just underneath.

"NO!" Jack screamed as he ran towards the tree.

The eagle righted itself and despite being relentlessly bitten, it was able to open its wings and glide downward. It attempted to fly with the 'cargo' on its back but Edward grabbed a hold of one of the wings and pinned it to the bird's side causing them to go into a spiral downfall. As he leaned over he fell underneath the bird's body and they both hit the ground hard.

Jack could hear raucous screeches and growls coming from a thick shrub next to the tree. As leaves and twigs rained down from high above, he heard a muffled cry of pain and then nothing. "Ed! Ed! Where are you?" Jack pushed the thick branches around trying to see underneath them. He could see a feathered lump move around as if it was starting to feed. "No! _You fucking bastard! You killed my brother!"_ He dove into the bush headlong and grabbed the bird's neck and then body and mangled it with his hands. Bones snapped, blood fell, Jack growled. He gripped its throat tightly and roared at it as he strangled it until it stopped struggling and finally fell limp. Jack threw it aside and looked for Edward. Just underneath, the cat laid. Motionless.

"No! Edward, Edward... wake up, c'mon. Don't do this. Don't do this." He picked up his brother and carried him out of the thicket and sat down on the tall grass. He cradled him in his arms and shook him gently. Tears welled in his eyes and feel freely. "No no no, c'mon Ed, come on wake up. Please. Please just wake up!" He said over and over.

"Jack..." Edward choked, then moved his head up to look at him. "Stop... yelling..." He said with a half smile. "I'm just tired... got the wind... knocked out of me..." Edward said breathlessly as he hung his head again. Jack stroked his fur and saw the small bloody puncture wounds.

"Wait here, don't move. I've got to get the pack. I couldn't get to the flare gun out of it before that bastard was going to attack. I didn't think I would be able to throw a rock that far up but I guess so when properly motivated! Anyway, wait here."

"Where... am I going... to go?" He said with a pained laugh.

Jack raced over to the pack where it lay some 200 feet away. The entire front side of it was near shredded but the contents were mostly accounted for. Jack said a quick thank you for the pack saving his life. Without which, he would have been severely injured or even killed.

He threw it next to Ed and pulled out the shirt that their dad had given them, there were also a pair of Ed's shorts that Jack pulled out for the fabric to dress his own wounds. He tore the shirt the long ways and carefully lifted Edward up a little so he could scoot the shirt underneath him. He then tied it around Edward's back and belly tightly to stop the bleeding over the spine.

"Where else are you hurt, Ed?"

"Umm... my right arm hurts a little... but the skin is not broken. Don't worry about it. What about you?"

"First let me help you out, you got it worse then I did." Jack said as he tore off more strips of fabric. He grazed his hands over the tall grass to get them wet from the dew and washed them, wiping them off on his shirt, he then continued to bandage up Ed's small arm and added padding around Edward's back. Making it so that Ed had to stay near immobilized so he wouldn't accidentally injure himself later.

"Hey, did you see that swan dive?" Edward coughed a little as he gave a proud laugh. He flashed back to seeing the ground race and spin up to meet him at a speed that seemed unrealistically fast.

"I give it an 8." Jack said as he patted Ed's shoulder. "Is this too tight? Can you still breath ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Now lemme help you with that." Edward propped himself up onto his haunches and tried to lift his front paws but found it exceedingly difficult to move around. He tried to stifle his hurt sounds but let out a few.

"Just sit there, I got this Bro." Jack eased Edward back down.

"Yes Sir." He said with a half assed salute, now facing the other direction.

Jack shook his head and wet the fabric on some grass a bit further out. He then looped the torn strips of fabric around his arm and tied it using his teeth and free hand. Grunting and breathing hard through clenched teeth every time the fabric grazed by the open wound. The cool air acted as a kind of ice pack when it blew past the wet bandage. He tied it tighter to stop the bleeding. 'Should take a bit longer to heal then my hand, this was a lot deeper then that cut.' He thought. Then Jack folded another long strip of fabric and bandaged up the back of his neck and head where the eagle had bitten him. It wasn't

as serious as the arm wound but it still stung a great deal.

"Damn it, those guys were good, they were fearless." Jack said adjusting the bandages and padding them more.

"They were trained for that. Size doesn't really matter for them. It's just their bad luck that they had to fight me." Edward said with pride.

"What were they trying to do? I thought the first bird was trying to take you away as a meal."

"Not for food but yeah, no doubt that they could have taken me if the Center had sent just one more bird to attack you. Thanks for the assist by the way."

"So are they the same birds as before? You know, yesterday at the school?"

"Yeah. I’m pretty sure they were, but this time they actually had orders."

"How could you tell?"

"Yesterday, they were just there. I believe now that they were there just to watch, observe and record."

"Record? How?"

"Bring me one of the birds and I’ll show you."

"What?"

"Just bring me one." Edward said and motioned at the closest winged corpse.

Jack winced but picked up the body of one of the eagles and brought it over to Edward, laying its immense body down. Ed painfully got to his feet and went around to the bird's head. Lifting it up he stared at its gruesome face for nearly a minute with Jack looking on in disgusted awe.

"Ok, it's still recording so hang on." Edward said and dug his nails deep into the bird's mangled throat and groped around for a few seconds then found what he was looking for. He grit his teeth and with a few twitches of his paws, he dropped the head and body back down. "It's turned off now. It's safe to look at now." He said wiping his feet on the grass to get the bird's blood and feathers off.

"What just happened. That was disturbing."

"Well, it's easier to understand if you just pick up the bird's head and look directly at it. It's off now so you don’t have to worry." He then eased back down to his side.

Jack winced and reluctantly picked up the bird's head as the rest of it swung in a heavy pendulous circle. "Aaand what am I looking f.." He saw it.

The bird had no color in its eyes, no white, and no pupil. Along the outside of the incredibly inky black circles of the eyes, he saw hundreds of little microscopic ridges all along the outer ring. What caught his attention was not the lack of depth or life in the eyes. But the tiny, tiny words that didn’t line up with each eye. One focused closer then the other and were out of sync. The words, when Jack held them closer to his own eyes read 'Sensurround.’

Shocked, he let go of the bird's head and its body fwumped onto the ground. "What the fuck?! What the ... what is that?" He stammered, pointed and backed up a couple of steps.

"Yeah, they’re cameras. I didn’t notice before, yesterday, because they were purposefully not looking at me when I crashed into the shed. I thought they were ignoring me 'cause I wasn’t interesting enough for their attention, go figure. Turns out, I was their only thing of interest _._ " Edward said as he looked over to the other bird's body several hundred feet away.

"I might have to shut that one off too." He pointed with a paw to the other motionless lump in the tall grass with a wing propped up and pointing skyward. Jack was still reeling.

"These guys, these birds were watching you yesterday? They weren’t just some dumb birds, they were just there to watch? And, and now, _just right fucking now_. They tried to kill you? I don’t understand. Why wait? They could have tried to kill you then."

"They didn’t try then, because they weren’t ordered to. They don’t really think for themselves. They do what they’re told. I think now, umm. Hey, do you remember that gray cloud yesterday?"

"What? Why are you asking me about that?"

"Because, I think that they were partially responsible for the cloud being there." Edward stared at a spot in front of him, and shook his head. He then looked up, "Jack, you need to either bring me that other bird or help me over there. We can't let it record any more of our conversation. I can explain more once that thing is safely off."

"Right, right." He said coming to little senses.

He went over to the other spot where the large black bird lay as all around them thick fog rolled in. He glanced back at Ed and even from such a moderate distance it was beginning to get hard to see anything under 3 feet. 'That’s good I guess, better to hide.' Jack thought to himself. 'Sucks because it's also getting chillier out. Why did I just have to wear shorts today.' He tried distracting himself from his chore.

He picked up the mangled heap of bird by a wing and dragged it over to Ed who immediately pounced on it and grabbed its neck and head with his paws, digging in with his nails. Jack was so startled he jumped back from him. Edward sat staring deeply into the eyes, sneered at the bird and then laughed like a mad man. A tense moment passed between the humming black cameras and Edward's blazing emerald eyes. It was as if he was looking past the cameras, directly to the other end of the live feed. He shut his mouth and bared his bloodied fangs at it.

"Fuck you Albert." He said staring down the empty eyes. Grabbing a hold of the eagle's head, as much as he could fit inside his mouth, he clawed at the neck and body until it shredded apart. Blood soaked feathers flit and spiraled to the ground all around him as he savagely ripped the bird's head almost completely off. Wires and small chunks of machinery mixed with muscles and tendons fell from the neck of the bird as a small motor whirred into a loud shrieking frenzy. Both of the brother's ears stung with sound. Jack clutched the sides of his head and worried about who might hear the shrill scream of the machine.

With his ears flat back, Ed let go of the bird's head and grabbed the rib cage of it and prodded around and broke one of the ribs, making the motor wind down to a halt. They could hear the echo fade off into the trees and animals dash away at top speed.

Jack let go of his ears and his jaw dropped at the mess all around them, but he didn’t interfere. It became apparent to Jack that his brother knew what he was doing and wouldn't dare get in the way of the gruesome business. Edward then let the bird's body drop. He panted and sat down next to it. Spitting out the feathers, he rubbed his paws off in the dewy grass and then wiped his face off, disgusted by the taste of oil that fueled the motor, mixed with the bird's blood. He chomped down on some fresh green grass and chewed it up until it had absorbed the oil and he then spat it out again.

"Oh man, that was gross, next time I'll just use your knife." He said to Jack. He shook his whole body and calmed his excited nerves down. Then as if coming from a distance he felt a need to apologize, he said to the bird after a long moment, "Sorry I had to... do that to you." Edward looked up to Jack who was obviously trying to hide how seriously freaked out by his brother's erratic mood changes he was. He understood why Edward would be so angry at something that tried to murder him and his brother, but couldn’t figure out what the story was behind the apology. Also why all of these bad things keep happening around his little brother. Edward saw Jack backing up from the decapitated bird. He couldn’t focus very well due to a combination of the fall and debris in his eyes, but could tell what Jack was thinking by his body language. He was trying to be supportive of his little brother, but was still unnerved by what Ed was able to do to something nearly twice his size, with such fierce precision.

Ed could see that he needed to explain why he said he was sorry to the avian assassin. "We... " Edward motioned to the birds and himself. "We knew each other back at the Center. It wasn’t a friendship or even brothers-in-arms... it's hard to explain." Ed looked down and frowned at the bird. "You know, it's really shitty what they did to all of us. I know they used to be innocent birds, but as soon as I transformed, they did too." Edward said as he looked forlornly at the bird. "When they changed they ceased to have control of their own bodies, they became like, well, robots in a way. They can't stop once they have their orders, and I’m guessing it wasn’t to kill me, but to bring me in, at any cost. They were ordered to kill you though, otherwise they would have succeeded in just taking me with them." He glanced up into the sky, noticing a shooting star fly across the heavens. He gazed at the multitudes of stars to arrange his thoughts in a way that made sense. Everything seemed to be as scattered as those celestial lights.

Jack glanced up thinking Ed had seen another eagle. When nothing was found out of the ordinary he looked quizzically back at Edward who said, "I can see I need to explain some more, huh."

Jack just nodded and said, "Please," nicely.

Edward laughed out loud and patted the ground next to him. It was apparent that it would take some time. "Well, ok. It's starting to come back to me faster now, it's getting clearer in my mind. Fighting those guys really jogged some stuff loose in my head. I remember that they weren’t the only eagles there, there must have been half a dozen at first. I only faintly remember these two though, like, maybe a week before I left they were grown. I don’t know their names but the other ones were umm, Vega, Nova, Cozmo and Deedee. They were fun, I loved them all as my friends. I don’t expect you to understand how such monsters like those guys over there could be fun but, they weren’t always... that way. At first the Center wanted to use them as a kind of huge carrier pigeon for larger packages, small laptop computers and stuff, I don’t know what exactly, but they were flying around with all that gear attached to them or weights in satchels being picked up and dropped off by them. I would run along with them as they flew. I remember it being exhilarating to chase them through the woods sometimes, when Albert wasn’t around. There was a skinny guy with black hair that would put me in a harness and the birds would come by and pick me up and fly some dozen feet with me as their cargo." Edward smiled at the memory. "That was fun as hell. However, when they turned on the wave we both would change, I would get larger when I turned human and they would get real still and focused. I know now that they were being 'turned on' but back then I never understood why they would stop playing with me. I began to think they were mad at me for something I did so I stayed away after awhile. If I remember right, the thing that changed me wouldn't always change them. Or maybe it was the other way around. It's like, well, the pulse, or wave or whatever you want to call it, had different frequencies, and it would react with those umm particles in the space between space."

Edward looked up and to the left for a little trying to remember something that he only saw happen a couple of times, years ago. Jack sat patiently beside him and tried not to look in the direction of the dead birds. He took this moment to scan the area again. His nerves were still on high alert as his eyes darted left and right all around them, but would immediately pay attention to Ed when he would speak.

Edward continued, "Ok, so like the gray cloud yesterday? I've seen that cloud before. It was an accident that happened in the lab that caused the particles to umm un-stick to one of us, the birds or myself. Like, the sheer amount of particles that were needed to make up our mass, weight, and help us transform meant that it was usually either me or the birds changing into the bigger or more complex shape. Rarely both at the same time but it happened. So like, if I recall right, sometimes the particles would all gather close to us then like 2 positive magnets refusing to connect... it is kind of like that. The cloud of microscopically small atoms were diametrically opposed to both of us but drawn in at the same time, and would dance around in a haphazard way until the guys were able to fine tune the frequency to make all of the atoms go to either me or to all of the birds. They didn't have to grow too much larger, but they did grow more complex... on the inside. Cameras and that other junk you just saw. Inside the bird's skeletal structure were like, microscopic machines with programs similar to blueprints for using all those different atoms in constructing machines inside the birds themselves. Course it took me a long time to figure out the concept of what they were doing with all those atoms when I wasn't using them. I'd catch snippets of conversations here and there around the place and pieced it all together."

Edward said and simply laughed at Jack, he was paying attention but also was toying around with a dandelion in a odd way.

"Here, it's like, all of the information for this dandelion to grow bigger, is in the seed. It needs more matter in the form of water, and energy in the form of sunlight, in order to duplicate its plant cells and get bigger. If it no longer gets water or sunlight it dries up and gets smaller until it can get more water and sunlight. For me, I need those invisible particles that are all around us even now, and I need some kind of energy to gather them all together to make up my human body. That's what the wave does, in a basic way it gets my body to draw in all of those bazillion invisible particles to me, and my body uses them to grow into a human. That's where the extra weight comes in, even though I'm still very light for a human... it helps. It was really hard to think of how to think about it. It had never been done before and no one I've ever heard of had gone all that far in explaining where all that mass comes from for their monsters, they just say, ‘The Hulk just gets bigger by gamma rays’. What a load of baloney. You can't change shape by just getting angry or by gamma waves because gamma rays don't even carry an electric charge or have any physical mass. Something else needs to happen to gain weight, you can't get something from nothing." Ed paused and gave a different analogy. "Saying that the Hulk gets heavier when it gets bigger is like saying a popcorn kernel gets heavier because it popped. The Hulk should still weigh as much as a human, just spread out like a marshmallow."

"I know the Hulk is just a fictional character, the writers and directors just need something that sounds realistic, you and I both know that reality is often stranger then movies. I should know, I've done my research!" Jack laughed as he pulled the last petal off of the dandelion and tossed it aside.

"She loves you not?" Edward chuckled.

"Oh ha, no I wasn't paying attention."

"Pity, then I would have her if ‘she loves you not’."

"Oh where, oh where is my secret lover?" Jack said wistfully.

"Being secretive and lovely?"

Jack gave a confused look at Ed.

"Never mind." Edward waved a paw at him to get back on subject.

"So you’re made up of a freaky gray cloud of stuff when you're a human. Hah! I could have told you that yesterday! You didn't believe me when I said it went inside you. Called me crazy, well bplbbppppbblllbbpp" He raspberried.

"Real mature Bro. Well, that’s the jist of it, do I need to explain further because I'm not sure I can dumb it down any more for ya."

"Nah I'm good, let's get to the safe house, can you walk yet? I can give a piggy back just as easily. I just need to take out the flare gun and stick it in my back pocket first. It didn't do much good stuffed deep inside the book bag. Hang on." Jack dug the flare gun out and then put on the backpack. Before Ed could protest, Jack picked him up and had thrown him over his head and onto his shoulders, halfway laying on the top of the backpack. "There we go."

"Geez Jack, it looks like you're bringing me home for dinner."

"Stop complaining, you're gettin a free ride." After a few hesitant steps in the fog, Jack tried finding a path in the long grass. "So Ed,"

"Mmmm?"

"I thought you couldn't understand other animals."

"That's right, no more then you can understand them, body language and all that." Edward said shifting his weight to be more comfortable on top of the pack and Jack's shoulders.

"Well, I heard you talking to the birds earlier, could you hear them speak?"

"What? No. How could they talk anyways, they have no lips."

"Oh I just thought... so why were you talking to them?"

"Well, just 'cause they can't talk doesn't mean that those birds don't understand English."

"Ohhh ok. Just wondering. So you are the only one that could talk from there?"

Edward fell silent as he was trying to remember. "Umm... no. Now that I think about it, there were a couple... umm." Edward said sadly, "It's really horrible what they did to those poor things. They... tried making others, and failed. I was the first success they had, I... didn't die within a few days like they did." Edward said morosely.

"Oh I'm, I'm so sorry. I didn't know..."

"No, and I understand that you couldn't possibly have known, but you deserve to know where I came from. It's not completely clear, but that place is creeping into my mind. My past has been something that I've wanted to remember for awhile, but now, I wish I could have just remained ignorant. I realize that sounds very selfish of me. I'm sorry."

"No it's not selfish, you have a right to your own happiness, you don't have to feel bad for wanting to forget those assholes. I know I would erase them all from your life if I could. There's nothing you could have done to help those that died before you."

"Thanks for that, it's just... shitty." Edward said as he balanced on Jack's back. Every now and then Jack would trip up on a hidden rock in the thick rolling fog. Edward was trying very hard not to loose his lunch on Jack, and was able to distract himself by looking at the enveloping mist. The fog that surrounded them waved and pooled around them where they walked. They could faintly see a glint of light coming from a far off lamp post that lit the top layer of fog so it glowed like a feast of lights. With the dark trees all around, and a hill in the center, made the circular illuminated areas look like a misshapen hovering sombrero. The edges of the small valley they were walking along, curled up some of the fog in the slight breeze when they hit the shrubs and taller plants. Jack's eyes wandered around the near deserted street. He was trying to keep an eye out for any more aerial attacks but found it hard to concentrate. Jack shivered uncontrollably as his bare legs were soaked with dew from the grass, the chill in the air, and thinking of Ed's past. He wanted to say something to help, and tried to come up with a motivational line but none seemed appropriate.

Ed interrupted with something that just occurred to him, "Yeah. There must have been 14 others. Can you believe it? 14 other attempts to create hybrids before they made me. I was called ‘Number 15’. They probably thought I didn’t need a pet name 'cause I think they figured I wouldn't live long enough to respond to it. Or, like, they didn't want to get too attached to their experiment. If they gave me a name, they might feel bad for doing the things they did to me, and making me do some pretty awful things..." Ed shivered along with Jack but continued on, "So they stuck with calling me either number 15 or just Fifteen. Hang on... there was one that... oh crap! I forgot all about her!" Edward said excitedly.

"Who? Who's ‘her’"

"Sixteen! I mean, Nina! She was born after me. They, they tried to keep us separate because... oh man what was the reason? I don't remember why, but yeah. I saw her a couple of times here and there but for like 99% of the time they always took me into a side room whenever she was going to go past me. I guess they didn't want her to see me, or something. 'Cause I found out about her."

"I wonder if they didn't want you two to ever become friends. It makes sense that they would want to keep you two apart, easier to break your spirit and make you obey. Less likely to join forces. Or maybe it's simpler then that, maybe they didn't want to risk you two mating." Jack nudged Ed in the side, chiding him. "Killer kittens running amok." He started to sing, "Edward and Nina, sittin in a tree, H-i-s-s-i-n-g."

"Like that would happen. She might not even know I exist.” Ed had thought of that possibility, mating, but dismissed it just as quick. From what he remembered, either she was human or he was, never both at the same time. They basically traded places every-time the wave was turned on. “I wonder if Nina had lived. They always kept telling me that I was special because I was the one that survived the tests, I was able to change back and forth with almost no problem. But I tell ya, they may think there's no problem but I say that forcibly changing shapes hurt like a sonofabitch. That's not perfect if you ask me! Course I guess when you think about the complexity of gathering up sub atomic dark matter into one or more living beings, might be pretty tricky. A few stomach cramps are a small price to pay but still, they could have given me something to cushion the pain."

"Sub atomic dark matter, sounds like the name of a garage band."

"If we ever start a rock band we should name it that." Ed nodded.

They now saw the last residence before they would reach their safe house that was even further down the unnamed dirt road. The yard was well kept and manicured by this hide away folk family, but it was the decorations that caught their eye. On the deck were several neon signs all lit up with 'giants' in the middle with the teams colors making up a large football. After running full on into the letterbox, Jack stopped dead in his tracks as they looked at the porch. There was a huge rocking chair on the left side in the shape of a helmet, and numerous flags hung from the house and yard, alternating with 'Giants' and 'Packers'. Jack looked around with a raised eyebrow. There was absolutely no other house in sight to impress with their display.

Jack swiveled his head to the side to look at Ed. "I wonder if they might be Giants and Packers fans." He said with an absurd laugh.

"Yeah, but they need to raise their freak flag higher and higher. They might as well be on the other side of the world for as much traffic as this street gets... not including us.” Edward said. "Oh hey check it out, there's a house at the top of the tree for the young fans too. Wow." Edward pointing up with his uninjured paw.

"Hmm, I don't remember this house being so... active. I bet they just moved in."

"Yeah, we would have noticed this before, definitely. The old lady that used to live here, Mrs. Train? She had this dog that was just a wicked little critta. Always mad at the world. I don't miss him at all." Edward said.

"Oh I thought you would be sad since he left." Jack said.

"Why must I be sad? That dog tried to run me down on several occasions."

"It looked like you wanted to be chased. I could have sworn I saw you teasing him one day when we were headed to the southern cliffs."

"Hell no, besides, he started it. He would get into our hiding places in the woods and wreck it apart. Don't you remember? Lil bastard dog."

"Right right.." Jack said as he hoisted the backpack to a more comfortable angle for Ed to lay on. He would hold onto the straps in the front with both hands so that the pack would not sag and make Ed fall off. "Remember when we used to play kings of the cave in that side of the cliff over there?"

"Yeah, I was the king of wingo for catching that pheasant and I remember you called yourself king weed, because we found that pot plant out in the field. Haha, I remember the look on Dad's face when he saw it in your back pack, we just recognized it from one of his old posters in the basement, we had no idea they were drugs back then. Ahhh, good times." Edward said laughing.

"Oh hey, I think I can see the light from our lamp post. Right over there. See? It's lighter there by those trees."

"Yeah, I can kinda see it, I think my eyes have some crap in them, everything's all blurry and I'm getting a little woozy."

"We'll get there in just a few more minutes. Hang in there." Jack said.

"I'm fine, It's you I'm worried about. Carrying me and the pack, which equals at least half of your weight, with all these gash's those eagles made in your skin? Where do you get that stamina from?"

"I just try not to think about it, once we're safe, I bet I might pass out, but for now we just need to get there. Distract me some more."

"Tally ho." Ed said as he pretended to whip his steed.

Smirking, Jack shifted the backpack roughly and made Ed slip a bit.

"Whoa there Filly." Ed laughed as he was bucked again. "Easy girl. You know it's a good thing you're not a horse 'cause they'd put your ass down."

"Gawd you're as bad as ever. Besides you are way worse off then me, remember? Who has to carry who? Oh hey, I see Dad." Jack said nodding in his direction. "Don't call out to him, if there's more spies out in the woods we would just be telling them where we are. We will get over there soon enough."

Henry had parked the truck at the side of the safe house next to the back door. He himself was sitting hunched over on the front step, smoking a cigarette. The boys were still a fair distance away as Jack trudged on and shivered in the cold air. He could feel himself loosing strength but was determined to get there.

"I didn't know Dad smoked." Edward whispered in Jack's ear.

"He used to, back when I was young, he quit because his brother died of lung cancer."

"Oh... who?"

"Aunt Ana Ng's ex-husband, you wouldn't know him. Timothy. When they divorced she kept her maiden name and she didn't remarry. That was about... umm 9 years ago."

"I've been meaning to ask, why does her last name spelled Ng but is

pronounced with an A? Like Ang."

"Well it's 'cause she is from Taiwan." Jack started really huffing at this point as they rounded a large tree and pile of boulders. "Please don't mention uncle Tim to Dad, he's almost within earshot. I heard that they were very close, and even though Dad was younger, they looked almost identical. Aunt Ana always reminds Dad of that fact whenever we go over there but I know it's hard for him to deal with it. You simply never get over a family member's death, I guess it's best not to mention Tim, at least not now. So uh, keep it under your hat."

"Right. Soon as I get a hat, I will keep that under it." Edward said quietly.

Jack made his way around the thicket and tall grass over to the house. The house was nearly impossible to find if you had never been there before. The entire outside and roof was painted to look like the surrounding landscape, and from above they made it look like the tops of evergreens so the green colors during winter wouldn't look awkward. The sides of the house half covering the wraparound porch was a combination of rocks and shrubs. Allowing plenty of actual plants to grow wild all around the house helped mask its square shape. However, the truck did stick out from the nature surroundings, but was mostly hidden from view on the other side of the house from the path they took. They could only see their Dad in the near pitch black of night by the light of his cigarette. Now that they were closer to it, the lamplight didn't actually illuminate much besides itself, but still made for a decent locator beacon.

Henry still hadn't noticed or heard his boys walking up, lost in his own thoughts. A twig snapped and he jerked his head up, expecting anything.

"Hey, Dad." Jack said from about 50 feet away. His breath stopped short and his eyes unfocused. Jack's brain told his body that it can rest now that he was safe and he promptly collapsed forward to the ground.

Edward was thrown about a foot in front of Jack and landed on his side. "Gahh! Unngh, Jack?" Edward got to his feet wearily.

"Jack? Jack! Edward!" Henry shot up from the porch and ran over to them.

"I think he's jusssttt..." Is as far as Edward got before he passed out as well.

 


	14. My Name Was Fifteen

Chapter 14 My name was Fifteen

 

 

 

Sounds of running water came as if from a great distance to Edward's ears. Then the water trickled swirled and sloshed around. He began to feel uneasy as he thought he was back at the river's edge again and half expected things around him to start blowing up or catching on fire. The noise of the water stopped save for a few drops heard as an echo. Most of him was as still and unmoving as a rock, and not as conscious to reality.

'This place doesn't smell like the outdoors... it's different.' He sniffed at the air again and again. He moved a bit... slowly as not to alert anyone to his presence or let them know he was now somewhat sentient. An unintentional tail flick, he winced expecting a blow from an unseen enemy... nothing. He hesitated before trying to open his eyes because he thought that his eyes would reflect any light in the room. If there was someone watching him that would signal them. 'But... the tail is accidentally flicking again and nothing bad is happening.'

He could tell through his closed eyes that there was a light to his left. He slowly opened the eye on the other side, away from the light so there would be no reflection. He saw a red blur that moved back and forth with his pupil. Blocking out most of his vision in that eye, he blinked several times to clear it away.

'It's probably just some dirt or another cat hair. Ow. Yeah, it's dirt. Dangit it's gonna take forever till I can wipe it out. Well, no one has come to attack me yet so I think I'm safe, it smells very familiar and it feels warm here, so I'm inside. Ok well, my right eye is useless, let's try the other eye.' The next thing Edward saw was a vertical couch and a long lump leaning flat up against it.

"Why would you stand on your own head?" He asked more or less to himself. Then realized that he was currently laying on his side as his eyes adjusted to the odd position of his head. He flipped it up and around, righted his head and nearly passed out from the rush. "Whooah." He said as he laid his head back down between his paws.

"Don't move. You lost a lot of blood. Just rest now, don't talk." He heard a voice say to him, and he did as he was told... mostly.

"Jack hurt his arm... it was the birds..." Ed muttered.

"What were they? Ostriches?" He asked in reference to the huge gashes on both of them.

"Eagles... same ones as yesterday. We... were able to kill them..." He said between breaths. He tried to lift his head again, slower this time. "Jack?" He said nervously.

"He's unconscious, you both were for hours now. It's nearly 4 am. You boys really had me worried."

"Dad? When will Mom get back from the store? We ran out of olives." Edward said lightheaded.

"Shh shh." Henry put a wet washcloth over Edward's forehead and eyes.

"Oh that's much better... cool..." Edward fell asleep again.

Henry got another washcloth for Jack's head and sat down on a big lazy boy chair in the living room facing both of the boys. A radio burbled in the corner. He tuned it to a different station. He wasn't in the mood for the pop band 'Too +3 r one' with Dr. Worm on the drums, or a battle of the bands; XTC vs. Adam Ant at the end of the tour. He turned the old dial over and over as sound bytes and sentence fragments filled the room. A very loud advertisement nearly woke up the boys as he went to spin the dial for volume. "Au contraire Dave, don't become a robot! Operators are standing by!" The voice said over excitedly.

"Man it's so loud in here." Edward muttered as Henry turned the volume down to a near whisper and sat closer to the dust coated radio. He carefully turned the dial in search for some semblance of sanity.

'Ah finally, someone talking about the news...'

"… which leads this reporter to think it was a fake out in Buenos Aires. In local news, an apparent kidnapping of an entire family took place yesterday beginning at 3pm. Trouble started when 4 men dressed in identical black suits raided the Amystriss school searching for Edward Johnson, a local boy about 15 years old. His older brother Jack Johnson also went missing at 3pm. New reports came in that one of the boys phoned their father's work, informing them of an emergency. The father, Henry Johnson was reported to have left his jobsite in a red truck, ''99 model Tigerella at around 9 pm after one of his son's torn backpack was found in the northeast side of town on the riverbank. Janet Johnson is also assumed to be with them as she mysteriously disappeared after leaving her work place at around 7pm last night. Her black ''08 Forde SUV was found along the windmill fence line on the south side of town. Search crews are gathering in the dark and vow to go around the clock until they are found. If you have any information on the whereabouts of any of these individuals you are asked to contact local officials, or if you have a tip you can always reach us here at 555-1029. In national news, a life size Mona Lisa was created using food as the medium, everything from bread hair to clothes made out of oranges. 'She's actual size' says our correspondent John Lee 'supertaster'..." Henry turned it to a different station.

"Oh damn..." He said. "Everyone's going to start making up their own stories and reporting them as news soon. I just wish we had the TV working."

When Henry restocked the food for the safe house, he did not watch any TV, so he forgot to get a digital converter box for the old TV in the living room there. Without which they were unable to receive any clear stations because every station in the country switched to digital in the middle of 2009, which was the previous year.

Henry sat back in the large arm chair. His eyes were unfocused and his mind wanted to shut down. The very long hours at the construction site were taking their toll on him as the hours ticked on. He dreamed he was falling down a dark tunnel and was about to hit bottom when he jerked his head up.

"Sorry." Edward said as he stood and steadied himself again on his dad's lap. He sat down tentatively on Henry's knees and looked up into his eyes. "Jack's still asleep, he already knows most of the story so I thought I'd tell you, in case it slips away again from my mind. I... remember everything." Edward frowned and then took a nervous breath.

Henry put a hand on Ed's back and stroked his fur to calm him down a little. "It's ok, ok." Henry said in a comforting tone and coughed lightly to wake himself up.

"Ok... Jack said that he told you basically what happened toda... yesterday. It's morning now right." He glanced out of the window at the lighter shade of black. He took a breath and stared blankly into the middle of his dad's shirt at a button. Anything to keep himself from looking his dad in the eyes. Floundering here and there, Ed found a neutral tone of voice to use.

"Dad, I am... I am not who you thought I was. I mean... I'm a product from a place called 'the Center'. The Center is a group of scientists and ex-military that wanted to well... make a name for themselves, make money. They had people from all different expertise and backgrounds to accomplish their goal. I can't tell you everything from when they first started. I wasn't bor... umm, created back then. I was the 15th one of a series of genetic and biomechanical hybrids, umm... I'm a chimera. I was the one that survived the transformations so they did most of their tests on me, trying to figure out how long I would live, and if I was going to remain a viable candidate for their end means." Edward said as matter-of-fact as possible but felt rotten for telling his Dad all this. Edward knew that Henry loved him as he was and would never treat him like anything but his son. Henry sat quietly, taking it all in and letting Ed talk to him at his own pace.

"I... didn't know there was a better life out there for me. The concept that my fate could change didn't even occur to me back then. I'm beginning to suspect that I was engineered that way, you know, to follow orders without question. After awhile I thought I loved those people, they rewarded me for obeying by giving me canned food for the day instead of the normal kibble. Letting me walk in the hallways and interact with the other scientists and workers when I wasn't busy training. There was one guy... it's... hard to remember. I still don't know his name... He... I would catch him watching me. Not like the scientists watched me. They would always be writing stuff down whenever I so much as looked at something for more then a second. No, that guy... I could tell that he was keeping a close eye on me but I don't think anyone else knew he was. I felt safe around him. Whenever the other men would say mean things around me, I could hear his heart race and felt him get really angry at those guys, then he would look at me and he was sad for me. I wish I'd talked to him more, but then the scientists would write it down and I was afraid he would get in trouble. It's hard to explain... there was a connection, this is gonna sound weird but he kinda smelled like me." Ed looked up and shrugged.

Henry wanted to find out who this guy was so he could thank him for looking out for Edward. "So he was a friend there?"

"Yeah... I think he was my only friend... and I don't think we'd said more then a few words to each other. Oh wow, I just remembered! He was the same one that had me out playing with the eagles in the biological testing dome! It just came to me, I didn't see it before because he had grown his hair out, at first he had short hair but in the dome it was a little longer, wavy black hair. It must grow super fast. I think he was skinnier back then too. Hmm. I hope he's alright."

"I'm sure he is." Henry patted Ed on the back as he slouched to rest his head on the back of the old chair he was sitting in. Jack turned over on the couch and started to snore a one sided conversation to himself.

"I'm glad he can sleep, he deserves it." Ed said in a quieter tone of voice.

"Aren't you tired?"

"Yeah, but... you need to hear this. So like I was sayin' earlier, most of their early tests would fail because the chimeras wouldn't live long enough for the scientists to alter the machines to keep the chimeras alive. That's irony right? It's like trying to invent a pacemaker for someone having a heart attack in the next room. The one that came just before me had managed to hang on for 2 solid weeks longer then the others so they were able to find the right frequency and procedure to keep 'the next one' alive through the shift... that was me. When I survived the first few transformations, they went berserk. It wasn't until they had nearly tested me to death that Albert stepped in and said enough was enough."

"Albert is..." Henry said, trying to understand.

"He became the one in charge. He let me recuperate for a few weeks then started to train me how to live like a normal person, how to hide in plain sight when I was to be sent on their missions. I've never been on any, but I do remember that the missions were going to be very important, top secret, and... well, deadly. They... trained me to kill. They were umm, very good at training me..." Edward took a quavering breath and refused to look into his father's eyes as he continued, "I'm so sorry, I wish I wasn't, but, that is why I am so good at taking people out. I can't help that I'm so adept at it. I never wanted to harm anyone. Least of all you guys." he gave a brief glance upwards with a guilty look in his eyes, remembering that time he sleepwalked to the foot of his parent's bed, carrying a knife. If they hadn't woken him up, he and Jack would be orphans.

Henry met his gaze with understanding and support, "It isn't your fault, I know that you are a good person through and through, no matter what those assholes had tried to make you. It isn't the training that makes you _who you are_ , it is what you do with your life that helps define you. What choices you make..."

Ed took a moment, "Well, I think you're right. I didn't want to fight or kill, they said I was defective, some called me a coward. When it became obvious that I wasn't going to be a willing fighter, they trained me to be a reconnaissance agent as well, making me somewhat useful to them at least." Edward gave a half shrug at that. "This isn't the whole story of course, I found out about it almost too late. I managed to sneak into one of the offices at night after nearly everyone had left for the day, the night guards were elsewhere getting stoned off of the gammahydroxybutyrate in the lab. I think they said it was a chemical that they extract from animals that is illegal if it's not used for medical purposes. Anyway, they thought no one knew, all of us animals could smell it all over them during the switchovers but didn't tattle on them 'cause then they might start doing their job and paying attention to us. As it was, we, I mean, me and the other sentient experiments, liked the alone time when they were off giggling in the lunchroom. On one particularly 'hilarious' night, I went into Albert's office and snooped around for something to do. I noticed some folders on his desk so I sat in his huge squeaking chair and read them. I couldn't understand all of it but I knew what it meant. They were going to take me out of the Center. I was petrified at first, that was my home. It was true that even though they had made me do awful things, it was still the only place I had ever known. But I knew that when they left for the day, they went outside of the Center and they returned unharmed so I got my courage from that knowledge. 'If I left the Center, I would not be harmed' is what I figured."

Edward then jumped off of his dad's lap and onto the end table next to him. He could tell that Henry's legs were starting to fall asleep. "Sorry, got carried away, I forgot about your leg cramps."

"Don't worry at all." Henry said, shifting to face Ed next to him. Quickly giving a glance at Jack who settled back into a silent slumber. "So you say you found out why they were taking you out of that Center place?"

"It was a test run. The head guys in charge decided that enough time had passed and they had done all the tests they could at the Center and needed to see how far the range was. I read in the agenda that if I failed then I was of no more use to them. They would have made the other girl take my place and keep me locked away, practically in storage. I read a bit further down and apparently Albert had jotted down a note to send to the other guys in control. It said, 'If the test fails we wipe his memory and I'll keep him as my pet cat. Ceasing human transformation permanently.' When I read that I was scared, it would mean that I would loose everything that made me... me. I didn't want to basically _die_ and become Albert's pet. That would have been awful. He doesn't treat anyone with respect and he was cruel to us animals. If we didn't do what he wanted the instant he commanded it, he would starve us or hit us."

"Nobody does that to my boy!" Henry was pissed.

"Dad, Dad... he... well, if I did fail the test, the others wanted to either lock me up forever or kill me and dissect my whole body. What Albert was actually doing in a way was saving my life. So... well, I don't know how to feel about that." Edward said gazing out toward the small opening in the curtained window. The sky was getting lighter but some stars still shown.

Edward continued on with his feelings and thoughts about the Center until the sun's rays cut through the thick trees and drawn curtains to a pencil thin beam of light. The bright thin sunbeam shown through the dust particles flying aimlessly about in the air until it illuminated the blank wall as a lopsided dot on the other side of the living room. He talked openly with his dad about everything concerning his past and the Center. Good or bad, he continued with the reasons behind the Center's actions. Now that he was old enough to process the information he gathered in his youth there, remembering numerous details and reporting them, as he was programmed to do. His training was finally paying off for Edward in the opposite way the Center expected. All of the Center's experiments and mutilations were finally laid out in plain sight.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It was all in the name of progress for science and the new frontier of astro-molecular bio-science. Illegally cloning humans and animals for their own research.

A taboo practice that only a handful of people even knew about. The Center was not funded by the government but by several independently owned labs at first. It started out as a small group interested in astrophysics, bio-neurology and the Earth's magnetic fields. Combining different fields of science in harmony to help comprise several living beings. This was the supposed wave of the future.

In order to make a profit off of these tests and studies they had to have a buyer. The Center had to find a way to 'sell' their product or services to an organization in order to continue their expensive research and development in micro-technology inside living organisms past the embryonic stage. As it was, the Center was hemorrhaging money into the tests, and producing little results. After all, this was a new untapped field of research and development and many were wary of making an investment on an unproven product with dubious results.

One day, some of the scientists would later call it the 'Black Friday' of the business, they had the answer to their problem. It wouldn't be easy, but the payoff could be immense. They knew they would have to make several successful working prototypes first before going to their intended client so they spent years perfecting them before they could be ready. They found one man to help fund them in the meantime, Albert, who was the ridiculously wealthy owner of several small companies and Biminy Labs. The newly named ‘Center’ was informed that Albert had a deep desire to bring back someone that he lost to death years ago. He was talked into funding the lab's work so long as he received the perfected product _after_ they found their ultimate investor. Their intended investor would have nearly unlimited funds and use for their products. The original scientists altered their research and experiments to suit the needs of both themselves and Albert, their new client, so once they had enough funds they could switch back over to whatever they wanted to study. They decided to try for the special agents sector of the CIA.

Their proposal was to create living beings that would go into hostile territories to recover intelligence instead of sending in special agents who could be traced. These new spies couldn’t easily be followed or discovered. By changing the chimera's entire physiology, between human and animal, it would guarantee its ability to move freely across borders as well as countries without ever being suspected. If rumor went around that there was a young child that was collecting information, then the Center could change them, from a far off remote location, into an easily overlooked cat without loosing any of its intelligence. The cat then could find its way to one of the safe locations for it to download its intel to the soldiers in the field.

Nearly all Governments of the world have basic human rights but not many have animal rights. The Center is creating things that never existed before and there is no law protecting creatures that 'don’t exist'. 'Man made creatures do not have rights.' They would say to silence opposition. 'It's not human and it's not an animal so it doesn’t have any rights at all.'

Using that logic, the Center was free to do with the experiments as they please. So long as the public _never_ hears of them. The words, moral and ethical, simply were not thought of or mentioned at the Center, concerning the creations. Focusing instead on how to do it, not should they be doing it. Many ex-military Center workers had lost friends and relatives in wars due to lack of enemy intelligence, so when the idea came about to have these chimera's go in instead of humans, they couldn't work fast or hard enough to get the product finished. They had to perfect the chimera's performances and abilities first, so when they presented them before the CIA as an alternative for using people as their spies, they couldn't say no. All of this was in secret, and under everyone's noses. The world was not ready for this.

The Center worked on a small enough scale for it to be feasible. The Center is not some huge all powerful company, it simply wants to be. Albert joined the group of scientists early on and became their boss in a way, keeping them on track and on schedule. In the early days they had a limited number of people that were sworn to secrecy about the group's actions. So in their initial experiments with cracking the genetic code barrier between humans and animals, they first turned to their own people to study their individual DNA strands and gene sequencing as well as those of their first animals. Out of everyone, there was only a few people who's gene structure was best suited for hybridization. The Center had tried and failed numerous experiments in physically removing cloned human brains and placing them inside the skulls of different animals and seeing how they would adapt. Nearly all of them died because of the still growing human brain would enlarge past the size of the skull causing countercoup whenever the being moved. They narrowed their experiments into fusing the human brains neuron-pattern with that of the animal host. Ultimately they were unreliable as the animals were unable to write or speak clearly or coherently enough to understand. Through CAT scans, they found that the human minds still worked but they were in a way trapped inside the primitive animal body, unable to communicate, it was frustrating, painful and short-lived existence and the few successes that they had were eventually put down. In the end, they abandoned the research in favor of more ingenious creations, the chimeras that were grown from scratch. Their previous forced chimeras rarely worked without great difficulty, due to the two conflicting minds in one body, but a being that was grown as one, would be more likely to live with only one consciousness controlling the body.

Ed didn't know at the time while speaking to Henry, that Dustin and Dan was the most recent Chimera made. Dustin's consciousness and parts of his brain were combined with Dan's mind and body. They are considered to be a forced chimera, not 'born' as a shifting chimera like Edward was. Dustin's mind was not born in Dan's body, and the odds of their existence as a sane, living, forced chimera dwindles with every passing day. Dustin's mind is struggling to cope with the vastly different body that it was forced into. It is only thanks to Dustin's unique DNA/mammalian compatibility that helps him somewhat adapt to the different body, where nearly all others had died within a day of the forced combination. He, at least, has a chance.

Since its inception, the Center grew to 60 some employees, most were in various scientific fields but the rest were there to keep the place running. Security personal, maintenance workers, suppliers, as well as men and women that wanted to be involved with protecting the country but were unable to pass the Government's rigorous recruitment tests. One such man was young and skinny with black wavy hair who specialized in communications of all kinds. At that time, Dustin had been with the Center for 7 years and was trusted with the duty to monitor all transmissions in and out of the Center's buildings and their various training fields. His duty as communications officer was to edit the endless hours of video and audio information down to the most necessary information to his higher ups. The Center was well on its way to becoming a very

powerful company to be reckoned with. They had it all with over a decade of laborious work.

Fifteen was not the first to be created but was the first one to 'Function properly'. The Center successfully programmed him to dramatically change forms when _they_ wanted him to. When they initially made the 'born' shifting chimeras they were shifting unpredictably, which ravaged their bodies and they would only live a short and very painful life. A few of the prototypes were able to control when they changed shape and that was considered unacceptable by the Center's leaders. If the chimera's had any type of free will they could conceivably escape the Center's control. The scientists decided to alter the genetic code of the chimeras to only shift for certain waves of magnetic and sonic frequency. These waves would 'ride' the naturally occurring magnetic field currents that surrounds the Earth and keep it spinning. The very magnititals that were fused with the body would be the trigger in changing it by drawing in innumerable amounts of the special celestial particles of dark matter.

Then they created for the magnititals, a kind of 'control switch' implanted into the brain stem that would keep the chimeras in one form until the Center wanted them to shift to the other. They tried and failed to modify it so that no living animal on Earth could detect the machines. The other animals were not solely reacting to the machines as such, but the chimera's themselves. The chimera physiology produced a pheromone that was unlike any other before, and it usually confused and frightened normal animals. But, it couldn’t be helped. Natural animals have finer tunes to differences in their surroundings. They know and sense when something is wrong and is not supposed to exist in nature. Humans could not detect the pheromones or machines, and that was all that really mattered to the Center. Nature would just have to deal with the unnatural.

The chimeras themselves wouldn’t be able to sense the particles being drawn and pulled into their bodies by the magnititals but the effects were immediate. They would change on command and without fail. Though this was the process to which they would respond, they themselves were unaware of it entirely because they would have no reason to believe that there was any other way to exist. They were to be blank slates, without memory, without the ability to control the change and without free will. The scientists were so arrogant as to their own superiority over the chimeras, that they could never have foreseen the incident that arose that freed their top achievement.

When it came time to test the 15th chimera, they knew that they could only go so far in the Center. While it was technologically advanced, they simply lacked the space. They needed to be sure that Fifteen could change at a distance of more then 50 miles from the source of the frequency for him to be an effective agent. After all, they couldn’t follow him around with the huge machine on his missions overseas. If this test proved fruitful they would build more devices to transmit the frequency at greater distances using satellites that would have to be built in the future when they acquired the money. This was to be a simple trial run to see how far they had come, and what needed to be done to improve on overall performance.

The plan was to have two unwitting couriers drive the cat (Fifteen) out to a random neighborhood many miles away from the Center and to drop him off in some backwoods using a preset GPS location for the test's starting point. The couriers were paid to drive away to a different location close-by and then wait. A mere 20 minutes later, the cat would try to make its way back to the car and begin to observe it without being detected. It was crucial for the cat to be undetectable, no tags, tattoos, and no device transmitting its location. If it was traceable, then in the future, the enemy could feasibly follow it back to the Center. For this test run however, they put a tracking device in his collar to keep tabs on him out there.

The two occupants of the car were told to be alert for the presence of anything suspicious. They would drive around random streets to mask the scent of the car and the people inside. After observing the car and the actions of the people, the feline spy was to make its way back to the drop off location to be picked up later.

The primary mission was to see if he could shift so the scientists would send the high frequency signal from the Center, to change him into a small boy just before the end. They also wanted to prove that he could find clothes for himself without getting caught and to return to the car and convince the men into giving him a lift. If he was unable to convince them, then he was told to knock them out and find the Center himself using the locator beacon in the dashboard of the car. If he failed to do any of these tasks, then other agents would be ready to come in and take over. Several other units were sent to the location earlier so that they could watch the events as they took place and to make sure that the chimera stayed on track and completed the trial run mission in its entirety.

The plan was very well thought out, and they thought it was foolproof. They never in their wildest dreams thought that the spy could or would escape. They brainwashed the chimera from the day it was created. Fifteen knew only the Center. Ceaselessly being tested and monitored, he was taught nearly everything a good spy needed to know in order to be successful. He was able to appear normal in public in either form. As a cat he simply looked like a large black and gray striped stray, and as a human he looked like an active scrawny neighborhood boy.

A few visual features and kinks were never fully worked out by the scientists. They couldn’t fully change it into a flawless human. It retained its tail, along with the most prominent whiskers, and the eyes remained slitted. His other talents were not so obvious to observers. To compensate for the flaws in human aesthetics, the scientists taught Fifteen to simply pull out the long whiskers and to wear clothes to hide the tail. They had to teach these traits and others to him many times over because he had no problem with running around nude all day regardless of form. It seems silly for most people, but it felt perfectly natural for him.

"Why should I wear clothes only half the time? Why not all the time or none of the time?"

He was inquisitive and smart, the scientists were excited about how much he was evolving. But still, no matter how much he learned or how well he behaved, he was still just a creature in their eyes. One that had to be locked up when not in use and trained endlessly. Simply a tool for them to use when they wanted. He had no rights and no future. If he made a mistake he would be punished severely, if not killed and replaced.

The Center learned much from him and when he was still very young, they had already started the creation of a female chimera. Using a larger breed of feline, the Savannah, and a different human DNA donor, they wanted to find out if gender and strength could make the chimera more useful, as this young male could become more headstrong as it grew. They needed a larger specimen then their earlier attempts.

The original specie of cat is the Serval from Africa which is twice as large and much stronger then the average house cat. But because the breed is considered wild, many people crossbreed the original Serval with a domestic cat, to keep the relatively large size and help with taming. The hybrids are called Savannahs. Savannah owners often note that their cats are more like dogs in their loyalty and intelligence, even though they resemble thin cheetahs. Servals have large oval ears that are set close together on top of their slender heads with long legs and feet that make them incredible jumpers. With the face and ears aimed at the viewer, the head makes a tall heart shape. An added bonus is their accuracy in reflexes, hunting and hearing are far above a normal housecat's. Savannahs, being a crossbred, have both Serval and house-cat traits, making their appearance and behaviors fairly unpredictable. Like, wolf/dog hybrids can either be more wolf-like or dog-like. Every individual is different and must be taken seriously.

Pure breed cats get more attention then mix-breeds, so that is why they stuck with a Mainecoon and California spangled mix-breed for Fifteen, and a Serval and Maincoon hybrid for Sixteen. His feline body was better suited for work in domestic areas, and her body is better suited for wilder areas. No one would think of messing with a feline that looks like a small cheetah, and no one would bother messing with a black and gray striped stray.

But genetics only go so far, personality’s and choices made, make people who they are. Disheartened and wanting change, Fifteen kept his feelings to himself. They could test all they like, but they would never find out what he knew in his heart. If he was to be free he had to keep some things secret. Had they known what he longed for, they would never have let him live.

What Fifteen didn’t know is that he did have at least one powerful human ally. One of the Center's own personnel grew to hate what they were intending to do to these helpless beings. When it was discovered that their first successful hybrid had escaped, Dustin swore to himself that he would do everything he could to keep Fifteen protected far away from the Center. First, he had spent over 9 months trying to find out what happened to the boy after he disappeared. Then after he found Fifteen again, he had to find a safe haven for him to live under the radar. In order to do that, Dustin quickly realized that as the communications officer, he could easily hide the boy where he was able to monitor, editing out his presence before the information was given to the higher ups.

Something the Center could never have expected was a simple twist of fate. Fifteen found out the night before the big test, what was planned for him should he fail the trial run. Fueled by the instinct to live, he decided to use the trial run itself as his way out.

The Center was so arrogant in its superiority over the chimeras that they could not have foreseen the lengths he would to, to escape. They had assumed the chimera was a blank, emotionless slate, that he was completely programmed with no will of his own. With no concept of freedom, Fifteen's mind and will was completely theirs to control.

Thankfully, they were wrong.

Sometimes, when he slept, he would get flashes of events that played out in his mind. Fifteen was there, but not, it was as if it were a movie being played out around him with him as the star. He was seeing memories of events that happened long before he was even born. Some scientists argue that complex beings such as mammals couldn’t possibly have genetic memories of the ones that came before. Butterflies and other small bugs have genetic memories that are passed down through many generations, mainly to tell the young where to migrate to. Scientists certainly couldn’t have thought that beings that were cloned and manufactured from multiple living things would be able to access any memories from the originals. Though the flashes never made complete sense to him, he learned of freedom through them. In many of them, Fifteen sees landscapes drifting by from the view of someone running just above the ground. He climbs the tallest of trees and experiences the most beautiful days and sees some gorgeous landscapes. He can almost taste the clean air. A stark contrast to some of the other memories.

Cold, dark and dreary rooms, hospital beds and IV’s. He can see other figures lurching about in the dark with the occasional pain filled moan of one of the residents next to him. He feels lost and alone in a world of pain there. In those memories he longs for freedom the most. He sees how the dark and depressing rooms in his dreams are only different to his current rooms by the choice in lighting. Though his current dwelling is well lit, it is anything but friendly.

In the flashes he sees images of people that he felt he'd known all his life but he doesn’t recognize their faces. All mouthing comforting words at him but the flash never lasted long enough to give any hint as to what they said. Here and there, mixed in with the hospital beds and blinking machines, he would see flowers and cards next to him. Every time it happened, he tried desperately to read the name on the cards when the flash came back around the following night. Always it was just out of reach. He could sense that the memories were from many, many years ago because of the clothes people wore, and the machines looked less sophisticated then the ones he normally sees on a daily basis.

One night of dreaming, a week before his escape, he saw the card on the nightstand again, large figures hugged each other and patted his head. He watched as they smiled at him with joyful tears in their eyes. He was being released from the hospital. He was well again.

Even dreaming, Fifteen was determined to read the name on the card.

'Whose memories are these?' he needed to know.

Without control over it, he could see his own human hand wave at the two tall figures as they get ready to leave. They put down a stack of books on the nightstand, knocking over the card. As it fell down away from him in slow motion, his mind tried to bend the immovable space to read it.

'No! What does that card say? Who is this?... Who are _you_? Are you... _me_?!' He followed the memory as it played through as always. Unchanging, confusing and strangely familiar. He felt his own body waking up from the agitation.

'I can't wake up now! _Who are_...' His eyes widened and breath stopped. He shot up out of bed and clenched the bars of his cage beside him.

 

"Dustin!"

 

Edward's face lit up as he remembered that name. He had to remind himself to breath and almost laughed at his long anticipated accomplishment. Always he would wake up before finding out who's eyes he was looking through in the old dreams. Always trying to piece together the bits of information in the dream, to hunt down some clue to help him. 'I finally know' he thought happily, but soon wondered if he should have tried to figure it out. If that act meant that he lost a part of himself, to find out that that part of him is from someone else.

"Dad. I remember who... whose memories I have. A man named Dustin." Edward said as he stared at the floor. He had forgotten all about those dreams until he had to explain it all to his father. "But, I don't know what this Dustin looks like... or if he is still alive..."

Henry sat still and took it all in, but his mind was numb from fatigue and sadness. Edward looked back up to his dad's face and jumped off of the end table and back onto his dad's lap. "Mom is ok." Edward said firmly.

"How do you..." Henry asked wearily.

"They aren't going to hurt her. They... won't, because she's bait for me. She's useless to them dead." Edward managed to say before the tears started to fall. Sniffing and wiping his eyes he said, "She's ok. I know she is, I promise. But if we're going to get her back we are going to need our strength and a good plan. The Center is very far from here and we can't make it in the shape we're all in now." Edward watched as his dad's eyes unfocused and focused again, unable to stay alert. Ed knew that Henry refused to sleep as long as his wife was out there, so Ed decided to do something to help him out.

He got down off of Henry's lap as he muttered something unintelligible. Ed, himself, was a bit wobbly as he walked into the bathroom and leaped up onto the long counter-top. Stretching upwards to his full body length, he popped open the medicine cabinet overhead with the tips of his nails. It swung open and he hopped up inside the half empty cabinet. He found the Tylenol nighttime and picked it up with his mouth and jumped down out of the cabinet. He then made his way into the kitchen carrying the awkward bottle in his mouth. He put it on the floor and got his Dad's travel mug off of the kitchen table. It wobbled and Ed said, "Lie still little bottle. Wonder if we have any canned turkey for the triptaphane... never mind... this is faster."

Pouring half a cup into the mug, he filled the rest of it with water, then closed the lid tightly as he shook it as best he could with his feline fingers. Every action was difficult to do since he currently had no long human fingers or even thumbs, but near useless protrusions with nails at the ends. His daily practice in using his short fingers allowed him some kind of controlled muscle movement but it required a lot of patience for the trickier undertakings. If Jack was there, Ed knew that he could just ask him to do the various tasks, but he longed to be completely independent. And that meant relying on what you have to work with. His body was his own, and only he could be the master of it through practice. He grinned at the simple accomplishment of mixing cough medicine and water into a screw-top mug, then picked it up by the handle in his mouth.

He strutted over to his dad and set it down in front of him. "Here, some grape pop for ya to keep you awake." He lied, twice in one sentence.

"Oh... oh umm thanks." Henry said clearing his throat and drank it down quickly. In less then 10 minutes, he was fast asleep on the arm chair as Ed went over to his own chair and went to sleep too. Relieved by the knowledge that Albert wouldn't think of hurting his mom as long as 'Fifteen' was still loose.

The long hours of the day passed by without anyone stirring from their sleep. Birds chirped noisily as large mammals made their way past the house and the unexpected truck, over to the base of the cliff-side to the west of the safe house. Police sirens went off in parts of the city but were too far away to be heard by the slumbering lumps. Unbeknownst to the family, the whole city was in an uproar at their own neighbors missing and presumed in great danger. So many people were out searching for them that the cats that went missing that night and next day went unnoticed by nearly all of the residents.

 

The school canceled classes for the day but was filled with nearly every young child in the city. Fearing that more kids would go missing, the parents willingly brought them to the school as suggested by the city's defense team. The city had many clear plans of action should it be compromised by outsiders. The school is easily the strongest and most fortified building in the whole city, so nearly every room was occupied with worried parents and confused children. Food was prepared and brought in from every restaurant in town without charge, and many of the clothing and departments stores brought in blankets, toys, and clothes, because no one knew how long the people would be held at the school. All of the teachers had been asked to entertain the kids to keep them calm while all of the able bodied adults were out in the streets searching for the family. In an adjacent building, the town council met in the cafeteria for the school.

"We can't risk the secrecy of our fair city for anyone."

"This is a whole family, not just one individual, if the town has been compromised why are we still fighting to keep it a secret? This family came to us for sanctuary so we can't just turn our backs on them."

"We've got people all over town searching for them, doing wide sweeps of the forests and factories. We've even got our people checking out the windmills' interiors, it's only a matter of time before we recover them."

"We need to do more. Have we gotten any reports from Constantinople?"

"No, all of our residents that work there haven't heard a word, as you well know there isn't another town for hours from here, over the mountains. There is a house here and there dotted in the mountainside and we have already sent people out to check them."

"We should call the authorities in every major and minor town from here to Vashtown."

"Are you insane? That's impossible."

"Before there's any more rash decisions let's just make sure they haven't simply gone somewhere together, camping, vacation, a distant family reunion. There's no reason to panic."

"No reason? No reason?! How many people do you know destroy their house before they go camping??"

“I doubt anyone would do that on purpose to their own house."

"I agree, the fire marshal said that it is impossible for a gas, electrical, or even an arson lit fire to only burn the interior of the house and leave the outside untouched. And I don't believe that 'spontaneous house combustion' bullshit."

"We're sending out scouts town to town and all the major cities around us, what else would you have us do?"

"Call the government, the FBI, CIA, the Kremlin! This family is caught up in something major and I will not sit by and let Amystriss' sanctuary go to shit while we sit here jabbering."

"I will personally see to it that all of the search parties are organized and we will do one final and thorough sweep of the city before we start to jump to risky decisions."

"Where are the search dogs or cadaver dogs?"

"They are out in the bamboo forest right now, it's so thick in there that we can't easily get people through there to search."

"Have them search outside of the northern mines next. That is the last place anyone has seen Henry, and one backpack was found among the rocks of the waterfall. The water is shallow enough to see that there is no one in it after the falls. Everything goes off of those damned falls, if they survived they could only evade sight from the workers by going through the mines."

"We've already gone through the open mines 3 times."

"Do it again!" He hit the table with his fist making his cup of coffee spill all over the maps of the town.

The council fell silent as some went for paper towels and napkins to dry off the delicate maps before they warped and stained.

"It is our job, our duty to keep the citizens of Amystriss safe. I refuse to let my fair city become a joke on national news. Now listen, they haven't left the town yet because Janet's vehicle is in the police station's hold and is being inspected as we speak. Henry's truck hasn't been spotted leaving the town yet so they must still be here. No one is reporting any missing cars so they haven't stolen any."

"Why would they steal..."

"I'm just saying that if, for whatever reason, they felt the need to leave town at any cost they might have tried to steal a car. I'm just covering bases."

"What time is it? Have they finished searching the cliffs?"

"Not yet, but they said they had found evidence that there was at least one person at the top of the waterfall and possibly underneath. One of the cables crossing the river was swinging loose and had dried blood on it, we're testing it now and it seems to be human blood. There is no sign that they are still there. At the base of the falls there was a medium sized t-shirt and a pair of jeans that had been found on the shore that were still zipped and buttoned."

"Hmm, those could have been Edward's, I bet he changed shape again and just slipped out of the pants and shirt. My daughter Jen said that he was human when they all left the school yesterday at 3pm." Chris said looking at his watch.

"Has she said anything else? We know she left the school with them."

"She said she hasn't seen or heard from any of them since they left the school yesterday and split off from the group of kids. She's been interviewed twice today already. Do not make her do it again. She doesn't know anything and reminding her that her friends are lost is devastating for her." Chris glared at the upstart that had made his daughter cry. Insisting that she was at fault for their disappearance.

"I don't mean to pry but where is your daughter now?" A woman asked, concerned, and now also glaring at the upstart in the corner.

"She is at the school in one of the offices... she is understandably upset..." Chris wrung his hands over and over as he remembered hearing her bawl uncontrollably for hours in her room until he took her to the school. He knew that she should be with friends. Chris shook his head and checked his cell phone again. No calls. 'I told her to call every half hour.' He thought to himself checking the clock on the wall. "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, I have to check up on Jen, I will be back shortly." Chris walked over to one of the other rooms and dialed his daughter's cell phone. It rang once.

"Hello? Edward? Where..."

"No sorry, it's me Hun." Chris said.

"Any news yet? Have they found him?" Jen asked anxiously. She knew that if Edward didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be, but still worried about him since he left her window late last night. She kept her promise to keep his leaving town a secret, but it pained her to do so, and she wished that someone would find them safe and sound.

"No news yet, we are going to better organize the search teams and send more people around to get the word out."

"Ok... love you Daddy..." Jen said quietly.

He could hear her start to cry again. "Take care sweetheart." Chris hung up the phone and wiped his face and composed himself before entering the conference room again.

"It's 7 pm. How long do you want to wait Chris?"

"One more hour, Alex, please... before we call the government office. Give our search teams one more chance to find them. Then I promise... we will go public. Amystriss is done hiding."

 

Jack was the first one up... or rather, down. He rolled right off of the couch and hit the floor with a loud fwump. Even still, it took a few minutes to wake him up after that.

Edward flipped around and flicked his tail in annoyance at the disturbance to his sleep and curled his tail up over his face, subconsciously grabbing it with both paws, he brought it in to cover his eyes for shade and sighed. He relaxed and continued to sleep. Jack crawled and stumbled to his feet and with eyes half shut, he attempted to make his way to the bathroom down the hall... then discovering that the hall was missing, he opened up one eye to look for it.

"Oh yeah.." He muttered as he looked at the kitchen. 'This isn't the bathroom... where is it here?' He thought, as nature was calling.

He went through the kitchen, opened several closets and even the front door, thinking it was the bathroom. He squinted as he saw the sun blare down on him and his boxer shorts. He shivered in the wind and a bird flew by. "Not the bathroom." He said as he shut the door half-assed, turned around, and staggered off towards the back of the safe house, bumping into walls all the way. By now, he seriously had to pee.

He opened up every door and checked inside, finally finding the bathroom as the last door and went in and relieved himself. He flushed then looked around the small room at all of the fixtures and half sized tub and toilet. 'Oh right... I almost thought I'd grown a few feet taller overnight...' He remembered that this house was built as a working model showcase for the shorter people in town. He looked around for some kind of clock or anything that tells time. Most of the electronics in the house used batteries that had died over the few years while the house had sat nearly empty.

He got only a few feet away from the bathroom when nature made a redial.

Afterwards, he wandered around looking for a clock. 'I guess we should have replaced some batteries last year...' He said inspecting the battery housing of one clock that ticked very slowly in the hall.

His stomach growled and he went back through the living room to the kitchen and opened up all of the cupboards, noticing that a few were already open.

"Spam spam spam spam... jez Dad... how about a can of something that's not lovely spam." He said as he opened up the next cupboard. "Hahaha... tuna tuna tuna tuna... Ed should be happy. What I would give for a cheeseburger right now." He pulled out 2 cans of spam and one tuna and found some small plates and small silverware. He struggled to make his other hand work while using the left handled can opener, and questioned himself why he had thought it absolutely necessary to buy it from Frank's shop. "Wonder if he would refund it if it's only been used a couple times..." He found himself thinking about Frank who he hadn't thought of in months.

"Why Frank would leave the store with his brother is beyond me. Just odd... leaving a store in a note. What did it say again?" He quickly gave up such complex thoughts, and turned the can of spam upside down and let it slowly fall out of the can and onto a plate in a cylindrical shape. He poked it with a fork as it wobbled and then opened the other cans. Edward's tuna fish looked more appetizing then the spam so he opened up a couple more cans of tuna for himself and put his own tube of spam onto Henry's plate.

"Lovely spam, wonderful spam." Jack remembered the shopping trip years ago and his father's odd soliloquy on spam.

The mingling scents wafted around the house and woke up Edward who fell right off the chair. Forgetting that he was still cat sized, he landed gracelessly on the floor with a furry thud. "Oww... rgg. Who put this floor here?" He lazily flipped around and got up and walked mindlessly over to the scent of food. Then stopped short. With his mouth watering, he forced himself to turn around and look for the bathroom. Nature didn't only call, it screamed. Upon finding the bathroom with ease he flushed and thanked heaven that it was a smaller toilet as the regular sized ones were awkward to maneuver while standing on the seat with all 4 legs.

"I love this house." He said to Jack as he found his own plate of fish on the table. A quick glance told Edward what Jack did that morning and he shrugged. "Mornin."

"Mornin."

"Did you sleep well?" Edward said as he tried to adjust the bandages that wrapped around his back and chest. It had shifted in the night and the padded part was now on the side.

Jack leaned over and readjusted it and straightened the edges behind Ed's shoulders and the other edges around his hips so the huge bandage wouldn't bunch up on him as he moved. Then did the same to his own bandage on his arm and neck, taking a quick peek underneath the white fabric to see how it was healing. It had stopped bleeding and he forgot what Ed had just asked. "What?"

"I asked if you got a good night's sleep."

"I guess, I can't tell what time it is, the sun is over there so that's what... 8am?"

"You're gonna go with 8am? Haha Jack, that's west. If the sun is over there then it's about 7 or 8 o'clock at night. P.M."

"Night?! How long did we sleep?"

"Umm... we got here at 1am or so... then you passed out... I think I passed out too, woke up at about 4 am just for a bit before the sun came up. Dad was still awake so I told him everything I remembered about the Center. I knew Dad needed to sleep too, otherwise he would probably go a little crazy. He did work a non-stop double yesterday, that would wear anyone out. So I put some Tylenol night-time in his mug and told him it was pop." Edward leaned over and could just make out the shape of their Dad sleeping somewhat diagonally and sideways on the reclined armchair. "So I think you slept like nearly 18 hours in a row. That's got to be some kind of record, even for you Jack."

"Well you two got enough right?"

"Yeah I'm good, let's let Dad sleep till it starts getting darker out."

"Eat your tuna." Jack said nudging the plate over to him.

"Thanks." He said as he jumped onto the table and ate the whole can in a minute. Then licked his mouth for a few more minutes as Jack dumped out another can's worth of tuna onto Ed's plate. At first Ed shook his head saying he was full but as Jack put the spam in the fridge he could hear Ed greedily munch away on the fish a moment later.

Jack went to the living room and checked on his dad, covering him up in the blanket from the couch, he could hear him say, "Janet" as he turned his head and

slept. Jack remembered Edward saying the Center wouldn't dare hurt their mother, but was still worried sick. He had to trust his little brother because he was the only one of them that had any clue as to what was going on. Now that Ed remembers all of his past, Jack became worried that he would change, not in shape but personality. What was his old self like? It was obvious that he was no longer choosing to be a pacifist. He had demonstrated his deadly fighting skills just the day before. Jack told himself it was only self defense, and it was justified, so it can't be a major reversal in Edward's personality.

He saw only pieces of Edward's other personality come to the surface and was concerned that the brother he had known for years would disappear, to be replaced by someone that has no problem eviscerating his enemies without any hesitation. Even if he'd known them from before, and might've even been friends at one point. The eagles screams echoed in his mind, he would never forget that. He shuddered at the thought of loosing his best friend. Jack even had a brief thought of Ed betraying them all, should his other personality take control over him. Jack pushed that thought aside with distaste. No way would his brother betray them. 'Not on purpose at least...' Jack thought to himself.

He watched Ed jump off of the table and go to the living room window and separate some of the curtains to look outside. He couldn't see anything move around out there, save for the odd animal and leaves waving in the breeze, so he then went to the front door to take a good look around the woods. He was about to ask Jack to open it for him but found it already opened. He knew there were no intruders in the house for the sheer fact that they were all still alive. He pushed it open with the top of his head like a slow battering ram, then went out to the porch and sat in the few rays of the setting sun that managed to peek through the thick trees and cloudy sky.

"Well I can't smell anything out of the ordinary, and I can't really see anything but I think... something's up in town."

"What did you say?" Jack called out from one of the rooms that split off from the kitchen.

"Come out here. I'm out front, Jack." Edward said as he walked along the wraparound porch.

Jack wandered over and stood next to Ed in the sunshine, listening for something out of the ordinary. "What's up?" Jack said.

"I feel that something is going on in town. It's a weird vibe... like... I dunno, it's like everyone in town is stressing out. I can't smell, see or hear it but I know that out there people are looking for us." He said quietly. A brown squirrel spotted them and ran up a tree, chittering noisily at them and flicking its tail in a comically menacing way. Jack smirked and faked a lunge in the squirrel's direction and it ran for its life into the next tree over.

"Stupid squirrels. Always freaking out about nothing." Jack said but Edward wasn't listening, he got off of the porch and walked around the perimeter of the house. Jack could hear his movements in the shrubs for only a few seconds then after a minute he reemerged on the other side. "Anything?" Jack asked, wondering what Ed was up to.

"Nope. We're still good here. We should check the local news though."

Jack went in first and Ed followed, the door was designed to automatically close using gravity when it reaches a close enough spot but any kind of obstruction makes it stop dead. Before Jack came out onto the porch, Ed had put a small rock in the door jam. Edward succeeded in making the door sound like it had banged shut but it actually rebounded and was slightly ajar. He had his reasons.

Jack turned the TV on and immediately hit the volume down button before the picture and sound came up. The green bars disappeared one by one until 3 were left. But the screen shown nothing but static. Jack tried channel after channel. Then checked the connection to the wall and did a scan of all available channels.

"Oh I'm an idiot." Edward said after channel 42 passed to 43 and still nothing.

"DTV. We never hooked it up, we don't have a digital converter box for this TV 'cause we weren't even here in 2009. When Dad stocked up he must not have tried to watch TV back then. Wait... there was a radio this morning... yeah over there."

"Hello radio, been awhile." Jack shook the antennae in greeting as he unplugged it from the socket next to their snoring dad. He led Edward into one of the near empty rooms.

Edward looked around and nearly laughed out loud. "Why the heck were we all sleeping in chairs when we had beds in here?"

"I don't know, I don't even remember getting into the chair... or was it the couch? Yeah Ed what the heck did happen? We were walking across that freaky Giants fan's lawn then... I woke up and was 2 feet taller..."

"2 feet... wha? You're crazy, you passed out right on the lawn throwing me clear over your head when you went down."

"I did?"

"Yeah, well... I think I passed out too soon after that. Dad brought us both in here so blame him for not checking first to see if there were beds in the bedrooms." 

"He probably wanted to keep an eye on both of us at the same time. I dunno." Jack said as he eventually found a wall outlet for the radio.

They listened to some songs then turned the dial back and forth along the band trying to find some station that managed to send strong enough signals over the vast mountain range that they were swaddled in. "No good, all we can get is our 2 local stations and a scratchy one from Constantinople over an hour away."

"Hmm, looks like we just missed the C-town news at 6... by an hour.." Ed said as he motioned to the clock inset in the radio.

"I thought that all clocks reset when unplugged."

"They do but we had batteries in the radio, in case of black out. This radio is from Dad's truck, see all the dust that is in all the cracks? That's white marble dust from the site. Most of this dust here is probably some debris that got tracked in years ago, decomposing with time and settling everywhere."

"Oh... you're good." Jack nodded at Ed's astuteness.

"Shut up, I'm just doing what I was programmed to do!" Ed snapped and kicked at the pillow in frustration. He began to pace back and forth on the bed. "Observe and report... observe and report! Assholes thought I'd never get wise to what they were doing. Ok... Jack, I'm finished with lies, it wasn't just observe and report it was to... to kill if able. They wanted me to become an assassin! Can you fuckin believe that? Oh yeah let's get a 40 lb kid to take out a trained terrorist, or better yet a fluffy kitty to take down an evil overlord. What bullshit!" Edward fumed and shouted. He shoved the radio to the floor.

Henry woke up as he heard the commotion and burst in the door. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

"Nothing." Edward growled as he grit his teeth and stormed out of the room. He could faintly hear Jack and Henry talk in the room a minute later. Then became irritated that they were talking behind his back about him so he left the house.

He sat in what used to be a dirt driveway and cursed the world.

'Never should have come here. Why did I ever think I could escape the Center. What good have I ever done Jack's family. Nothing but trouble to them. Nothing.' His thoughts became dark and depressing. The same squirrel chittered noisily at him. He shot a pissed off look at it as it flicked its tail at him in warning. Enraged, Ed bolted up the tree for the furred menace. He clawed and growled as the small animal leaped from one branch to another with shrieks of fright. Edward was quickly closing in but his bandage was caught on an overhead branch and he nearly fell out of the tree. He swung at the squirrel just as it leaped suicidally out of the huge tree and down the cliff side. Edward grabbed onto the limb he was on to balance again, and followed the small squirrel with his eyes as it narrowly escaped death on the rocks by catching onto a thin branch. Hoisting itself onto a thicker branch, it continued to run away at top speed.

"Fucker." Edward muttered under his breath as the pain in his back reminded him about the gashes that only recently closed. Now that the adrenaline had been used up, his body ached as he climbed off of the limb he was on and leaped to the ground with an angry thud.

Every other animal around fell silent for a long time afterwards, which managed to piss Edward off even more then the damned squirrel. "Yes! I get it! I know I'm a freak!" he shouted to the woods at the animals. He paced back and forth and eventually settled back down. He knew he was in no shape to go chasing stupid animals today. He stared aimlessly into the woods as birds began to speak up and sing again after a few more minutes. And still, the sense of foreboding was in the air.

"Everyone is out looking for us. I wish they wouldn't. Just leave me alone." He said to a grasshopper that jumped along the tall waving grass. Edward laid down in the grass and sighed heavily. "Just let me go."

Inside, Jack was keeping a close watch on Ed from one of the bedroom windows, keeping his dad up to date on what he was doing. As they watched him they formed a rough plan of action on how to leave the city unnoticed. "It looks like he's calmed down now." Jack said and saw Henry stand up. "I wouldn't go out there just yet Dad... he can get... well, you know." He smiled weakly and watched Ed bat at the grasshopper lazily, lost in his own thoughts.

Henry nodded and sat next to Jack on the bed and also peered out the window. "We should stay here until we have a reliable plan of action. We can't go out half-assed." Henry said as he thought about what the people would do to find them in an enclosed city. Even though the fence line was encircling the entire city, the surrounding forests, crops and fields, it was impossible to watch the endless miles of perimeter with most of the residents patrolling the inner streets. Especially if they had to search every house as well. Henry figured correctly that they would watch the only entrance in and out of the city and where they were last seen at the school and work areas. As Henry planned, Jack watched his brother out the window and they talked at length what to do to involve as few people as possible.

Ed didn't have to look at the house, "I know they're watching me little jumping bean. I don't care. What am I doing hanging round? I just get in the way... they can do what they want." Edward lifted his paw up and let the grasshopper jump over him and then far away, unconcerned.

"I think I might do that too." He said as he saw the insect disappear into the woods. After a few more minutes he got up and walked back into the house. Jack and Henry unsuccessfully pretended to not know what Edward did outside.

"So how's the perimeter look?"

"Fine, fine." Edward said. "We need a plan." Edward looked out the window.

"We've got a plan." Jack said, taking Ed by surprise.

"What?"

"Dad said that he heard on the radio this morning that they've got Mom's car at the police impound lot, and that they are watching the front barn gate to see who's coming and going. They are now looking for Dad's _red_ truck."

"But Dad sold that one for the blue..."

"Exactly. They are looking for the wrong truck! So now that that's out of the way, we have a different problem. They are still looking through every vehicle that goes through the gate, they think someone hacked us all up and is taking us out of town in a trunk or something. So we just need someone to take Dad's truck over to the construction site. Pick up our old camper trailer there and take it out of Amystriss."

"Aaannnd how does that get _us_ out of town?"

Henry said, "Well, that part of the plan doesn't, but once we get out of town we can get the truck and our camper so we can leave. We won't have to rent a car or stay at motels and whatnot. We just need to get someone we can trust to keep a secret. The news earlier said that there are people all over looking for us. So it has to be someone that knows what's going on and won't let on where we are, or where we're going."

Jack looked at Ed and nodded at him. Edward shook his head deliberately back, mouthing 'no' at him.

"What is it, Ed." Henry looked at Ed who shrugged as if nothing happened.

"We went to Jen's house." Jack said, Ed was mad.

"Jen? Jen from your school? What on.."

"I wanted to say goodbye to her, and I did." Ed glared accusingly at Jack for bringing her up.

"When was this?"

Jack answered, "Right before the freakin eagles attacked us. But she can keep a secret. I mean, the town isn't at our doorstep and they say we are still missing, right? She hasn't told anyone anything."

"Does she have a drivers permit yet?" Henry asked.

"No Dad, don't ask her to help us." Edward said sternly. "I told her I'd keep her safe. How is throwing her to the wolves safe?"

Henry reasoned, "They are just looking through cars, they aren't arresting anyone if there's no reason to. The radio said they are looking for a red truck, look out there, what color is my truck, Ed? Blue. That rusted p. o. s. is blue, and the guys at the construction site won't notice my trailer missing because I parked it just off of the site. And even if they do stop her she can just say that her father on the town council told her to tow it to the barn. We can think up a reason later. This is a good plan, Ed. And she will not be harmed, I swear." Henry crossed his heart with a finger.

"Even if that plan does work, how are we going to get out of town? How is she gonna get back home? She's not coming with us." Ed was insistent she stayed here, far away from himself for her own safety.

"She can bring a bike in the back of the truck. Just tell her to wait a little till the guards at the gate forget how she left town to begin with. Say she's camping and forgot something at home, instead of dragging the trailer and truck from the campground just over the hills, she took her bike." Henry said, making up a plan as he went.

"Maybe, I know, what if we get the whole town involved." Edward suddenly had an idea.

"What? Why would we do that?"

"We can't storm the Center with just the 3 of us, outgunned and out of our elements. But if we had a whole freakin city behind us, we can do it. Just give me time to think about how to get everyone together and at the same time to tell all the people to stay quiet about it until everyone is involved." Edward could see the puzzled looks on their faces. He tried to explain it better.

"Ok, if we just walk down Main street and say 'here we are' they might arrest you Dad for kidnapping us and maybe even killing Mom, and God knows what. That would be very bad for a different reason as well, because the Center's troops in town that are incognito would surely shoot you guys soon as they see you and take me as prisoner. That would suck, right? We don't want that. So if we get everyone, one by one on our side we can keep it a secret from the Center's guys until we have enough people to get rid of them. This town may be a tight knit community but no one person knows every single person in town. That's what the troops are relying on. That's how they've managed to sneak in so easily and do their thing without anyone suspecting anything. Living in this 'secure' city means that everyone has gotten soft minded. Thinking that if people are already here within the city then that means that they can be trusted. It's working against them and they don't even know it. That's why we have to work delicately and quietly. One person at a time, one at a time... but _do not_ get Jen involved." He pointed at both of them. He would not be moved on that last matter.

"I made a promise to keep her safe." Edward said, almost guiltily. It was clear to Jack and Henry that he had made that promise before for his mother, Janet. Failing that, he was determined not to fail again at protecting anymore loved ones.

"We can start, I guess... with our crazy neighbors down the road." Jack said motioning to the 'giants' house.

"That's good, start simple, closest to us then spread the word." Edward said as Jack and Henry discussed who next to talk to. Who they trusted the most in the city.

Ed slipped out of the bedroom and then looked around for the flare gun. Once finding it, he succeeded in wedging the gun into the underbelly side of his thick bandage that he was wrapped in. The bandage covered nearly his full body length. It was an uncomfortably tight fit with the bulky flare gun, but he would manage. He took one long look at Henry and Jack through the doorway, facing the other direction, discussing their options.

"I'm sorry." Edward said very quietly to his family.

"Goodbye." He reluctantly left the house and removed the pebble from the door jam, closing it with a nearly inaudible click.

 

 


	15. Re-Enlisting With the Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed has to make a tough decision to abandon his family to save them.

Chapter 15 Re-Enlisting With the Enemy

 

 

 

Edward walked along the indents in the dirt made by the balding truck tires when Henry drove in. Soon he couldn't spot the safe house amongst the trees and plants, and was happy that it was so well camouflaged in the woods. As he walked, he tried not to leave tracks or a scent trail but he had to move quickly. He had no idea how long Jack and Henry would talk before noticing that he was no longer in the house. He hastened his steps and decided to take an alternate route back to his old house to throw off the trail as much as possible, frequently jumping into huge trees with thick limbs that were practically interconnected. He was traveling about 20 feet above ground for hundreds of feet then dropping back down to the grass when the trees became further apart. Even though he was well rested, he was still injured and sore from the wounds that the eagles inflicted the night before.

He had to take a break here and there to reposition the flare gun tucked into the t-shirt bandage that his torso was wrapped in. Under the bandage, his fur was laid in the most awkward and uncomfortable of ways, but he resisted the urge to rip it off and scratch the hell out of his scars and the area around the bandage. He hated wearing anything when in his cat form. They had forgotten to restock the safe house's gauze and medical supplies since cutting his tail off there nearly 2 years ago. The t-shirt had to be tightened and repositioned nearly every time he jumped and so he eventually gave that up and decided to just walk along the ground the rest of the way.

"No sense trying to hide my tracks, once they have me, they'll leave." He muttered.

He hoped the troops would leave right away but had no proof or guarantee that they wouldn't just hunt down the rest of his family out of spite. It'd been 3 years since he left the Center and he had no idea if they had stayed the same or changed management. Albert may have been harsh to the animals but he was a fair man for the most part. He didn't see the sense in harming those he deemed innocuous and innocent. 'Just don't piss them off, guys. And Jack, I know you promised to come with me if I ever ran away, but, I’ve gotta do this on my own. Don't try to find me.' He thought, wishing he could warn his family. Keep them far away to keep them safe.

As he walked along, he slowed down to a spot not far from the main streets and listened as a group of people were yelling some couple hundred feet away. He laid low and waited endlessly for them to pass by. 'Oh hey, I recognize him, he's the guy that drives the school bus for the kindergarteners. And that's the girl I met at the grocery store last week, she helped me with my bags. I don't recognize anyone else... must be their friends.' He thought as they searched and scanned the grassy fields going in a diagonal path in front of him. They took their time and made a sharp turn to the right, narrowly missing his hiding spot behind a tree stump. He knew if he had moved an inch they would hear him or see him so he held his breath until they started talking amongst themselves about where to go next.

'What the hell, is everyone out?' He saw another group of people searching the yards of the houses he was planning on traveling behind. 'I wish they would just go home... they'd be much safer off of the streets now. All the lights are off in every house, I don't think anyone at all is home. Where are all the kids?' He looked around and heard a dog run straight towards his hiding place. He bolted at top speed away from the barking hound and ran under the nearest house's deck. The angry dog was at the end of his long chain and continued to howl in his direction. Because the dog was drawing people towards it, Ed saw his opportunity to run past them unnoticed.

Taking careful leaps, he nearly lost the flare gun as he ran from car to car on a long street. Out of breath and getting a little dizzy, his wounds on his back started to open up again. He had to stop and rest and get a good look around to get his bearings before going on. He climbed a thick tree and laid down on one of the branches. Edward waited and waited for people to disperse and for his heart to settle down.

'Where do they keep coming from? I bet this is the whole town, just going around in wide circles.' He thought. So far it was nearly a half hour spent traveling and evading view.

Eventually the wind picked up and there were fewer people out, the searchers had to return home to get flashlights and some food to go on into the night. Edward realized this from a brief conversation held by two ladies that were directly underneath him. He was still as a stone sitting up in the tree, any movement would give him away to them.

"I don't think I can go any further, I need a break."

"Are there any other groups that have been over here yet?"

"Yeah the Jones's, Fosselman's and Soteros's. They had been searching all day and are the only ones that brought flashlights."

"Well, my house is just around the corner here, come on in for dinner and we can get some coats, I heard it's going to be cold tonight."

"Oh thank you, yeah it's already getting dark out fast."

"So the kids are going to stay overnight at the school?"

"Looks that way, I know mine are. I wouldn't have them out at all till we find those boys. No telling what that father did to them. And the mother, where did she disappear off to? If you ask me we might be looking for a murderer or two."

"Shh. Don't say such things. We don't know what happened. C'mon, we can arm ourselves at my house as well if that would make you happy. Can't say I've got anything more lethal then a kitchen knife but if that would suit you, you're welcome to it."

It was all Edward could do to keep from defending his father's good name to that old witch. His tail flicked fervently as he tried to keep it from thwacking the tree and giving away his position. Once they had turned the corner he growled at them then cautiously climbed down. A few minutes passed and it was getting seriously dark out which in turn thinned out the people from the streets.

"I guess this is the best time to make a break for my house."

He read the street names as he passed and used his mental map of the city to guide him. He ran until his legs started to burn and the smell of his blood started to make him sick. He stopped when he reached the river, following it downstream to the nearest foot bridge, he crossed the same one that he and Jack had crossed just yesterday.

Ed looked at the river slosh and splash as it flowed, and said an apology to his brother for risking his life to save him. Ed still felt animosity and mixed feelings to the river. It had allowed them to escape quickly from the exploding and burning vegetation and scenery, but it had almost taken their lives at the waterfall. Edward decided not to decide how he felt about the river because it would just waste time and energy. Instead, he scoped out the area for any search parties or wandering stray dogs. His current northern side of the river was the higher street level and he had to crouch down to see the other grassy side of the bridge from under the trees at the river bank. He couldn't see anyone from either side of the bridge and quickly walked to the middle and caught something.

"Whoa, what's that smell?" He turned around and around with his nose to the rails and wooden and steel floorboards of the bridge. "Oh man, is that?" He walked a little further to pick up the scent again. "I'll be damned. It's that same guy I knocked out yesterday for tranquilizing Dan. I guess he's still out here, or was... I don't remember smelling him when we crossed so he must have walked on the bridge after us... from the smell of it, he stayed here for a long time."

He went a few more feet to the other side and the scent dissipated quickly confirming that that man had stood in the center of the bridge probably for hours and then left. Ed shrugged and sighed, he couldn't follow that thin scent trail to where that man went because he had gotten into a car, so he couldn't find them that way. His wounds and sore feet made him start to walk with a limp as he went through the thick tall grass, picking up his own scent mingled with Jack's.

"I could just follow... my scent on home. But... should I go there. Would they still be there or would my house be swarming with reporters and neighbors looking for us. I can't risk the news guys and cops finding me before I get to the Center's troops."

The long hike was seriously taking its toll on him, so he sat and thought of what to do. The flare gun was poking him in his bruised ribs so he took it out and laid it in front of him, staring aimlessly at the warning label.

"I guess this is as good a spot as any." He glanced around and found that there were fewer trees next to the park and he could faintly see the some fresh flashlights peeking out from in-between houses all around, shining up into trees and around cars. He had to act fast before the rest of the town came back out for round 2.

"Here goes nothing." He sat back on his haunches and braced himself up against a small tree sapling. He loaded up one of the charges into the muzzle of the gun and aimed it upwards and in the direction of his house. He was sure they would still be watching it, regardless how many reporters came calling.

A brilliant blinding flash of light and thick smoke burst forth from the barrel of the gun. On its way up, the flare actually set fire to a part of the tree he was under.

"Whoa shit!" He said as he tried to blow it out. Shaking the thin sapling around with both paws, he was giving every impression to anyone watching that he was trying to murder the tree by strangulation and incineration after shooting at it with a gun.

"Shit! Sorry! Sorry tree!" He said as he had to back up away from it, his fur started to singe from the radiating heat. He was thankful that the leaves and bark were still somewhat green so it didn't burn long and soon smoldered as an orange glow. The tree had two long branches close to the base of the main trunk that were spared from the fire but glowed orange along with the trunk. The lines that formed made a suspicious looking glowing arrow pointing right down to the culprit.

In the moments following, a black van tore up the turf of the park as it swerved left and right, dodging trees as it sped straight over to the glowing arrow. Edward was so preoccupied with the plight of the tree that he barely noticed all the hoopla going on around him, as shouts for joy and confusion filled the air surrounding the landing of the flare cartridge. The town's residents followed the smoke path towards the direction of the park where Edward was. The speeding van ran over a patch of flowers and scared a flock of slumbering birds that cawed and crowed, marking its arrival.

"What? Already?" Edward said as he spun around in time to dodge the oncoming van. Before the van screamed to a halt, two men jumped out of the sides and ran straight over to him. "Hey hey hey! Guys stop! I'm not... Hey Listen!" He shouted at them as all four quickly encircled around him with nets and guns.

They ordered each other to grab him and each one refused to be the first, causing a confusing stand off with poor injured Edward in the middle trying to talk to them. "Guys, shut up for a minute!" He stood up on his hind legs and held up his clawed hands for them to calm down but it just reminded them that he was trained to be a very dangerous opponent. His fellow chimera, Nina, was just as dangerous in feline form as she was in human so why wouldn't he be any less vicious.

"He's got a gun!" One of them pointed at the flare gun which in the dark looked like a sawed off shotgun.

Edward hunched down on all fours again and shouted, "It's not loaded you idiot!” pointing to the spot near the tree where he had left the other live cartridge. Just as the others looked in that direction, a falling ember from the tree just happened to land directly on it causing a blinding explosion. Ed had instinctively jumped aside from the falling ember and luckily averted serious injury.

"Damn it!" some shouted angrily, believing that he set the explosion on purpose. "It's a trap!" others aimed their guns at Ed and then around themselves, thinking that there were others out there, ready to take the men out.

"You guys are morons! Who the fuck trained you anyway?" Edward was seriously getting pissed off and annoyed at their incompetence, and had an internal debate whether or not to milk their fears for all he can. Shaking his head, he realized that would only make matters worse for him.

So he sat, very still, until they had calmed down.

"Are you done freaking out yet? People are coming over here and I need to get going." He pointed at the van.

In the distance it was made clear that most of the other people out searching were now running towards them at top speed with flashlights and guns cocking.

"Fine I'll get in myself." Edward huffed and jumped willingly into the back of the van, the men waited for Edward to magically hotwire the van and leave them there but he just turned around and said, "Coming or what? I can't drive this thing."

The deflated men got into the van and swore they would never speak of this instance to anyone, least of all Albert. Wild rumors had spread amongst them in the past couple of days so that they assumed their fugitive chimera was near invincible, and would kill them all if they got in his way. But now, they saw him apparently giving up the fight, and wondered if it was a ploy, if he was simply waiting for the right moment to murder them all. A couple of them got into the back with him, and held their guns at the ready should he try anything. He ignored them, found a spot and sat down, bracing himself for anything. The van doors slid and slammed shut and the others got into the front. They tore up more beautifully manicured parkland as they made their way north towards the town's exit. But soon they had to slow down to avoid the crowds, and navigate the unfamiliar streets.

Edward looked around him and heard hissing and growling coming from the back part of the van. Squinting in the dark, a light pole illuminated the stacks and stacks of cages that had black and gray striped cats in them. Many were too scared to do anything and the others were batting at the doors. It took him a second to realize that

they were scared of him and not the men at that moment.

"Sheesh. My own kind is scared of me." He said as he looked at all of the frightened cat's eyes that reflected his own inner turmoil.

Nearly every animal that came within scent range of Edward would sense something was 'wrong'. They didn't know what was so different about him but they knew that he wasn't natural, and usually went a little crazy if he surprised them even a little bit. It was only from constant interaction do they loosen up a little around him. Usually at first sight though, they simply want to run away. The family had tossed around the idea back when they first adopted him, about getting him a pet bird. He had shown great interest in caring for one since he saw a TV show showing off talking ravens, budgies, and parrots. The family felt that it would be a nice companion when he is left home alone, something to talk to, however, every bird they brought home would freak out until they took it back to the store a few hours later. Edward didn't say anything, but Jack could tell it was hard on him to be treated like a freak even amongst other animals.

He looked on and frowned at the cats who continued to hiss and growl at him as they backed up away from him. It only took him a second to guess the full picture why there were some 2 dozen black and gray striped cats. He nearly laughed out loud.

The real reason that Jack and Edward had not been spotted or captured as they were making their way to, as well as the time spent at the safe house, was because the Center's agents split up everywhere in town and rounded up every single dark cat they could find to kidnap and interrogate. They were convinced every cat that they came across was their target, 'number 15'. They had only a vague idea of what Ed would look like since leaving the Center, they didn't know if his fur would come in more black, or gray or even change colors completely in some unforeseen genetic mutation. Some argued that Edward could be like a Siamese cat that is born all white and later gains the black tips on the extremities, changing colors the older he got. Others still insisted that since the brother dyed his hair red that the cat had as well.

Edward looked at the reddish orange tabbies and figured that they were there for that odd rationale. What he couldn't have known was the way in which they were able to kidnap all of the strays and pets when so many people were out searching the streets. The Center's search teams had hastily painted the opposite side of their van; 'Big Al's Pest Control', which was the winner of the ironic and stupid name for their exceedingly short lived business. Some of them had to ditch their suits because the Amystrissians were out looking for men of their description so they had one of their troops buy a bunch of jumpsuits so it wouldn't be so suspicious to see them catching cats in alleyways. Still, some of the men insisted on keeping their suits and refused a 'costume' and were therefore easily picked up and arrested by the local police force. It was impossible not to look suspicious when you have men wearing suits chasing cats in alleys on any night, never mind one like this.

Albert, still at the Center, was listening to all of the wild reports coming in and was just about to have the whole lot of agents recalled back to base when Edward shot off the flare, giving them his location. Albert was having serious headaches over his agents' incompetence and swore to the powers that be, that there would be severe consequences. He even started planning out a whole new training scenario to be tested, and proven before any more mass blunders were made in the future. Had this been overseas and in hostile territories, like they were training for, there would have been deaths instead of simple humiliation. To be fair, the fault of the whole affair was Albert's, he made Edward change from a one of a kind human into a million of a kind feline. They might never have found such a small stealthy target in such a huge search area if he hadn't shot that flare.

If Edward had known what was going on, he might have found the whole situation more entertaining, but as it was, he was back with the Center and staring at dozens of frightened cat eyes in front of him. He looked at them and felt really bad for them. He hadn't thought about all of these pets and strays getting caught up in the hunt for Jack and himself. "Why don't you let them go." He said to one of the troops that was looking out the window.

The troop shoved him back, in a rough way but not so much to provoke Edward to kill him.

"Let them go!" Edward yelled at the other men. "You have me now. They had nothing to do with this and you're scaring them." He walked around the van and was trying his best to look as intimidating as when they first saw him at the tree.

"Looks to me like you're the one they're afraid of, freak." The driver said as he watched from the rear view mirror. Edward could tell by the tiny wrinkles around his eyes that he was sneering at him.

Edward's own eyes blazed at him. He growled and backed up quietly. He waited for them to look away. They were focused now on slowly navigating a way out of the crowd lined streets. Ed went without a sound over to the cages and jumped up and then over them to the rear double doors. He figured out how to open the latches that the feline occupants couldn't reach and popped all of them open one after the other, but left them half closed. Some of the cats jumped out of their cages as soon as Edward moved on to the next and started to scratch at the back doors. The cages were wall to wall, forming a barricade to the rest of the van, their only area to move was about a foot between the open cages and the closed rear doors to the van.

Edward took a quick scan of the cages and made sure all the ones that were occupied were now opened, then he climbed up onto the top cage and carefully reached over to the handles for the back doors of the van. He was the only one big enough to do it, because he was inherently larger then all of the other cats and smart enough to figure out how to brace himself on the cages and the door handles.

The van had swerved to avoid hitting some people in the street at that moment the doors clicked open. They swung out wide as Edward's hands were caught on the handle and he hung onto the door for his life. Nearly every cat jumped out of the van as it slowed down.

"He's escaping! Get him, get him!" They shouted at each other. The van screamed to a halt and Edward fell off of the doors to his bruised and now bleeding side as cat after cat jumped clear over him and bounded off into the night.

The wavering flashlights were now fixated on the van and the search teams heard the men in suits shouting. Edward could hear the returning calls of his neighbors and teachers. "They've got Edward! Get them! Stop that van!" They ran and started to throw rocks at the van's windows as Edward slowly got to his feet and tried to tell them to stop chasing the van. He gasped and coughed as one of the troops jumped out of the side door, slamming the back 2 doors shut as the other men found and carried Edward back into the van. The driver spun the van around to avoid the showers of rocks being thrown and made it to the main drag, quickly eluding the people on foot.

"Don't... hurt... them..." Edward gasped as his eyes started to loose focus.

"Keep him still! We're almost out of town."

The man in the passenger side pulled a transceiver off of the dashboard and started listing off numbers and letters into it and heard a reply in a different language. "Dobbroutro cokosey, ne ubdubno gahtro, gyuit yuit vitsey." Went the staticy voice.

"Repeat, Charlie-Mike-Whiskey. Over."

Edward listened to the strange yet increasingly familiar sounding words as he slipped in and out of awareness. One of them tightened the bandages around his back and stomach, getting out some morphine to keep him calm. The long drive to the exit was clear, and the van sped along without any further hindrances.

"Say goodbye to your old life, Fifteen. You're coming home." One of the men chuckled as he spat out the window at the 2 sets of open doors to the barn that was the only entrance and exit to the town.

"Goodbye? Are we... going home?" He said lightheadedly. "Home. Yeah, we are going to a new house right? Finally we get to leave that old house... Amystriss sounds like fun." Was the last thing he said before falling into a deep sleep.

 


	16. Lost and Found But Still Very Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You are not a monster.

Lost and found but still very lost

 

 

 

Edward sat on the porch, half asleep, watching some kids walk to school. They paid the young cat no mind as they chatted about what to do after classes and who was having a crush on who. His ears perked up as he heard Jack pick up his backpack and say a quick goodbye to his Mom.

"Hey Ed, now remember, you can't try to follow me to school again, be good today." He said as he ruffled the fur on Ed's head.

Ed flipped over onto his back, stretched and yawned up at him, wondering why Jack was wearing a light coat. "It's too hot to go anywhere." He said quietly.

"And no talking outside, dude. You know the rules." Jack said as he hoisted his backpack on and waved goodbye.

Edward watched him as he walked away, upside down. He counted in his head to 50, then got up. He stretched and yawned again, scratching his jowls with his feet. Then scanned the area and was sure no one was outside and watching, he started down the steps.

"Where do you think you're going?" Janet said out the window with a smile.

Edward was about to answer but Janet used the 'zip it' motion. She opened up the door and he hung his head as he went back inside.

"It won't be long till you can have Jack all to yourself, but for now why don't you help me out around here, hmm?"

"Ok." He said as he jumped up onto the end table. "What do you want me to dust first?"

"How about the top of the hutch buffet?" Janet asked, wiping her hands off on a dish towel.

"Yeah I can do that." He said as he went over and walked around the very tall hutch and studied the surrounding furniture for something he could use to help get him up there.

Janet knew Ed would be ok on his own and that he needed to figure out for himself how to get around without being picked up all the time. It was now September 2007, and the injuries he had suffered when they first found him were fully healed. He needed to use the muscles more so they wouldn't be so stiff. Janet patted him on the head and pointed to the 4 ft tall old fashioned radio that sat next to the hutch. He nodded and leaped from the table onto the radio and then carefully crouched down and then leaped up to the top of the hutch with only a foot and a half of clearance to the ceiling.

"Oh hey, did you know this was up here?" Ed picked up a slingshot in his mouth that was covered with dust and old spider webs.

"Whoops! Yeah, that's Jack's... guess I should find a new place for it." Janet said hastily as she took it out of Ed's mouth and put it on the table.

Edward saw a few random little things here and there, and one by one dropped them to the floor to be picked up later. He had a mission to accomplish. He crouched down and wedged his back up against the inner front facade of the hutch and crawled along the horizontal sides, rubbing up against the inside of the buffet and gathering up all of the dust and cobwebs on his fur coat, and then turned around to the 'clean' side of his body and rubbed along the back wall. Slipping his fluffy tail down between the hutch and the wall, he dusted as far down as he could. Resisting the urge to lick or shake off the debris, he arched his back and dusted the ceiling that was just above his height, he had to tip toe while arching to get the corners and use the tip of his tail where the wall met the ceiling. He sneezed and went over to the side where the old radio was, trying to figure out how to jump down from that height and not slide right off of the radio.

"Oh my! Look at you! I didn't know how dusty it had gotten, here lemme help

you down." She reached her hands up and waited for him come over.

He had an idea. "I wanna try something, Mom."

"Yeah sure, what is it?"

"I saw some people do this on TV. Acrobats, I think. I bet I can land on your back if you just turn around and face the table and lean over."

"Ok," she grinned and ducked her head so he could have more room.

He carefully leaned as far over the edge as possible and then practically swan-dived off of the hutch and onto her back without using his nails and without falling off or stumbling. In his young mind, it was the coolest move ever.

"That was a neat trick." She said as she leaned over for him to leap onto the table. He smiled up at her and motioned towards the dish towel. "Oh right, right." She said as she wiped off all of the dirt, dust, and spider webs from his coat. She had to flip it over and fold it several times to get it all.

"Thanks, what else can I do?" Edward beamed at her after a good shake. He liked being put to work.

"Don't worry, I've gotten the other stuff cleaned yesterday, why don't you get some food and watch TV?"

"Okay." He said unenthusiastically and went over to the fridge. He loved being useful around the house but today he wanted to be outside even more. Vegging out in front of the TV wasn't really his thing. He always felt the need to be productive if he wasn't busy learning something. These early days of his life with the Johnson's were filled with trial and errors, namely them learning how to cope with having a sentient being that looks in all respects to be a regular house-cat.

He tugged at the rope that was tied to the bottom most part of the handle to the fridge and it popped open. He pulled back further and quickly walked over in-between the fridge door and the food shelves as the closing door lightly bumped his back.

"Let's see... let's see what we've got." He mumbled as he looked at all of the leftovers and condiments. He spotted several containers with cooked meat in them in small cut up cubes as well as sliced sandwich meat. All were labeled his and covered lightly with shrink wrap. When he is by himself, it is hard for Ed to eat anything but cubed meat because he can't use utensils, and liquids and sauces always end up getting spilled despite his best intentions. Dry cat food usually goes stale, not to mention it being generally disgusting and demeaning, so his diet consists mainly of meats, usually no more then the equivalent size of 2 to 3 cans of tuna, which is his favorite.

All of his food is thankfully kept at the bottom shelf in the fridge and he inched out one of the containers of turkey slices, dropping it right side up on the floor, he kicked it out of the way of the door, letting it close behind him. He carefully picked up the plastic container in his mouth and went to the living room. Peeling back the wrap and shaking his paw to get it to stop sticking to him, he then would eat one thin slice at a time, savoring every bite.

He gave up looking around for the remote and then decided to smell it out. The remote's odors were easy enough to pick up as it had the rubber buttons that seemed to hold onto every molecule of food from sticky fingers flipping channels. He tugged and pulled it out from in-between the couch cushions and angled it on the floor to point at the TV and stepped on the 'on' button.

"Whoa, that's loud. Sorry Mom!" he yelled down the hall as he tried to turn the volume down with one digit. "We need to get a bigger remote..." he said as the green blocks on the screen disappeared down to 5.

Long hours passed by and Edward got bored with the Wheel of Fish cooking show, Raoul's wild kingdom, various soap operas and over hyped infomercials. He turned the TV off and went to find something to do. After living with the family for only a couple months, he already knew where every single nook and cranny was in the house and was tired of trying to find new places to explore. Eventually he went over to the windows and watched people walk past the house, talking and texting on their cell phones, or walking their dogs. Occasionally a car would pass by and he yawned at the lot of them. He could hear Janet taking a nap in the other room and found the soft snores hypnotic.

"I'm tired of sleeping all the time, I've got to get out!" He said at the world outside. He got up and went window to window again, only this time to see if any were unlocked or open. There was one that was above the kitchen sink that was always open a little to 'let the house breath' as Dad would say. It was too high up for him to reach and he thought about the long way down outside should he actually find a way up there. He left the kitchen and went downstairs. Those windows were really high off of the floor but were at a perfect ground level outside. He wandered around and saw one window that was behind some stuffed animals on a series of storage shelves.

"Bingo." He climbed up onto the many boxes and bins all piled up in the corner and was able to get to the top shelf, gathering more and more cobwebs and stirring up the insects down there, he made his way along the wide shelf to the window.

"Oh this metal thing pops out here to unlock it..." He put his whole paw through the ring opening and lifted it up to unlatch. Using his other hand, he quickly pulled out and upwards in a semi circle and got his head under the heavy window pane. Then after a few twists of his body, he squeezed through and was outside in no time, letting the window fall shut again.

"Oh wow, what to do now. Should I go see Jack? Or maybe explore the park? Jeez, there so many things I can do now that I’m out!" He was really excited and walked around without a care in the world. Practically dancing down the dirty back roads.

Their old neighborhood was run down and the houses were starting to fall into disrepair. Still, Edward saw it like a shining city, paved with gold that was laid out before him. He could hear the faint howls and barks of dogs inside houses that wanted nothing more then to chase him down and eat him alive. Edward thought they were just saying 'Hello' and waved at them, quickly remembering not to talk to strangers he went on his merry way.

A couple of winding roads and business parking lots later, he was starting to stray off his path. He started getting worried when the scenery changed from the familiar to the unknown and foul smelling. He sat under a parked car and looked out with increasing fear at the cursing and mean looking people that walked by the car.

"Where are they? My Dad works at a building site... all of these buildings need work so he should be here." His voice started to shake and he curled in his tail around himself. He peered out from under the car at all of the disheveled stores and broken windows.

"If Dad's around here, he might need help." He waited till there was no one around and went walking along the sidewalk, a car passed by and honked at him. Scaring him off his direction, he bolted around the back of a fast food restaurant and hid in the landscaping. He could hear plinking noises coming from above and looked up to see some kids with brown stuff all over their faces smearing their dirty hands on the window. He smiled at them and waved feebly, hoping they would stay behind that protective glass window. The front door opened to the restaurant as 2 different kids spotted him and ran at him with hands outstretched and shrieking for him to come.

"No no no, I don't know you!" He said as he ran away from them and back the way he thought he had come.

The children's eyes goggled at him as they went to beg their parents, "I want that talking cat Mommy!"

Edward panted as he ran and eventually the houses looked a little nicer and the air seemed less sticky. Exhausted, he crept underneath someone's porch and stayed there to rest and wait until his family came by.

"That's what Dad always said, if we're lost, stay put. So I should stay put." He repeated over and over. Traffic continued and the long hours ticked on. Just when he started to loose hope, he saw some kids with backpacks walk down the street in one basic direction.

"School's out!" He grinned excitedly as he left the porch and started to follow some of the kids. Far enough behind so they wouldn't hear him. He then stopped when he realized that he didn't recognize these kids as any that lived around his house.

"Jack, where are you?" He said as he went down street after street, stepping on rough broken sidewalks and around cars. Before all of the kids went into their houses he noticed a pattern, that they were all going away from one point, and realized that if they all left the school at the same time then Jack was out walking too. He remembered Jack talking about how far he had to walk to and from school and hoped that he was still walking home.

"But... how can I find him." He thought about how to solve the problem and smelled the bubblegum that one of the kids was chewing as he left school.

"That's it! I'll follow that scent back to the school then find and follow Jack's scent from the school as he goes home!"

Once he put the gum scent to memory, he had no problem finding his way back to the front steps of the school. He marveled at the sheer distance he guessed it was from their house to the school and then equally surprised at how long the building was, filling nearly 2 solid blocks. Then he was baffled at the infinite number of smells coming from it. He walked around the whole area looking for Jack's scent.

He had caught a hint of it but couldn't follow it anywhere. Frustrated he moved on, trying to pick it up again. He walked in circles and returned to where it was the strongest and he saw the small semi translucent and bubbly wet spot on the ground and spit next to it himself.

'Yup that's Jack's spit. It was always kind of milky white and looking like a beached jellyfish.' He looked up to the huge windows and roof above him and saw that one was opened. Then looked back at the spit. He figured it was Jack's room on the 2nd floor right there and went to find a way into the building. He was so intent on finding an open window or propped door he didn't notice a young lad walking up right behind him.

"BOO!" He shouted as Edward nearly had a heart attack.

"Jack! What the? I thought you went home, I was trying to find your... what are you still doing here?"

"The question is, what are _you_ doing here? I thought I said to stay home. Mom's worried sick, she called me up and said you might be here so I waited around for you to show up."

"Oh." He sat dumbfounded and embarrassed.

"C'mon, let's get home. I gotta call Mom first." He said as he speed dialed the house. "Yeah Mom, it's me. He's here. Yeah. Yeah. Will do. Bye Mom." He said as he stuffed the phone back into his pocket and looked down at Edward.

"What... did she say?" He asked sheepishly.

"She said to do this." He leaned over and smacked Ed's butt and threw him over his shoulder.

"Ow!" Edward yelped, but let Jack do whatever punishment to him that came to mind. Edward felt he deserved it for blatantly disobeying a direct order.

As Jack walked down the streets, lugging Ed home over his shoulder like a bag of flour, they both nodded at their neighbors and passing cars. Many people gawked at them as Edward soon found a good perch on top of Jack's shoulders and backpack, facing forward as he piggy backed all the way home.

"Why are they staring at us?" Edward whispered into Jack's ear.

"'Cause normally cats don't ride people down the street. I guess cats usually don't like walks. Dogs do though."

"Oh. So dogs ride on people's backs?"

"Haha, no, I meant that it's a lot easier to walk a dog then a cat. Don't ask me why, I've never had a dog."

"Oh. Hmm. I haven't either." Edward said after a minute.

"Ha, I know you haven't Ed, that's because dogs don't like cats."

"They don't?"

"Yeah."

"But... some dogs a few houses down were all happy to see me earlier. They kept saying hello."

"What?"

"Yeah they kept saying 'hellooooo'."

"They were howling at you. Sorry dude, those guys wanted to eat you up. Don't worry, I won't let them. I think I know which dogs you are talking about."

"Oh are they mean to you too?"

"Well they aren't necessarily mean, they are just trying to protect their home and family. Just warning off intruders."

"Can I do that?"

"You can try but people aren't afraid of cats like they are of dogs."

"But I have claws and sharp teeth." Edward said as he showed them off proudly.

"So do they, but they are bigger then cats and can be a lot meaner."

"Oh." Edward said and hunched down, he could smell the same dogs from earlier.

"Here," Jack said as he put his backpack down before they were in range of the houses. He pulled out all of his heavy books and put his jacket down on the bottom as padding.

"Jump in."

Edward looked at him quizzically.

"It's ok, jump in so the dogs won't see you." He said holding the bag open. Edward jumped off of his shoulders and into the bag and found it quite comfortable. Jack slung the backpack back on, then picked up his books and carried them in his arms. Edward heard the clacks of his shoes on the sidewalk and could hear the whine of the dogs. He huddled in the bag and noticed the change in sound that Jack's shoes had on the ground. Swish thum swish thum... must be grass. The front door unlatched and opened before Jack brought out his house key.

"Where is he?" Janet said worryingly.

"He's fine, just a little shook up." Jack said as he took off his pack and pulled Ed out and placed him on the living room floor in front of her. Ed's ears laid back and he went limp in front of her with his tail between his legs. He wouldn't fight back to whatever Janet did to him. He felt terrible for leaving.

He winced when she leaned over casting him in shadow, but was shocked when she picked him up and hugged him and kissed his head.

" _Don't you ever do that to me again!_ " She said as she hugged him tighter. Ed was starting to choke. Ed went even more limp, looking for air.

"Ok, Ok Mom? He can't breath." Jack pulled one of her hands away as Ed gasped for air and landed neatly on the ground.

After breathing deeply for a second he glanced up to her, "I'm very sorry, Mom." Ed said quietly and sat trembling with his head down, waiting for the unspeakably harsh punishment.

"Well," She huffed and straightened out her clothes and wiped a couple of tears from her eyes. "Let me get dinner started." She said turning around and walked briskly back into the kitchen. The others just sat there, cocking their heads at her.

Jack shrugged and led Edward into his room to help with his homework. Ed was a fast learner and was soon teaching Jack how to solve problems in just about any 12 year old's school book. So, they taught each other how to do the problems, and Jack's grades were never better. Jack kept saying that his little brother should be enrolled in an online class or something because it wasn't fair that he had to sit through the classes and try to remember all of the lessons to relate to Ed later on when they studied.

Jack didn't see it as odd to have Ed as a brother because he had always wanted one, being an only child growing up. The Johnson's had never owned a pet, so Jack never thought of Ed as one, and always treated him with respect. After they were done with Jack's math problems, a short break was in order and they wrestled around for awhile. Ed saw it as fair play to give it his all because he's so much lighter and easier to pin down. He sometimes uses his claws to even things out but would never leave lasting marks. Jack forgives him, but still doesn't hold back much in their sparring matches. The playful growls and thumps on the walls and floor were heard from outside.

A truck door was swung shut and some small chips of red paint and rust fell off of the side. "Hi Honey, I'm home." Henry walked in the door and heard his wife in the kitchen getting out the nice plates and flat wear from the hutch buffet. He put down his heavy gear in the tile entryway corner and dusted off his jeans. He went over to Jack's room and opened the door and leaned against the frame. "What did you do." He said simply.

"Edward left the house today and got lost, I found him at the school." Jack said with Edward held tightly in a sleeper hold. Edward thought about wriggling loose and hiding under the bed.

"Ed, I know it sometimes gets too quiet here at the house but it's dangerous out there. Are you ok? Are you hurt?" He said as he knelt down. Jack let go and Edward laid down on the bed, resuming his submissive groveling position from earlier. His mom may be forgiving but here was the head honcho of the family.

Edward looked timidly upwards to face his Dad with his head still low. "I just... wanted to.." He stammered on the verge of weeping.

Henry held out a hand and patted his worried head. "Let's go out for ice cream after dinner. How's that sound?"

Edward turned to Jack for an explanation why everyone was being so nice to him for disobeying. Jack just got excited and said, "Mint chip double."

Henry turned to Ed and waited with a grin.

Ed thought of the cheapest possible thing, "Umm small vanilla?" he said shyly.

"How about a large with sprinkles." He winked as he left the room.

Edward turned to Jack. "What? Why... ice cream? Is it going to be poisoned or drugged or something?"

"What? Ed, you're crazy." Jack said as he closed his books and leaned forward. "We all know you get cabin fever, sitting in here all day. They're just glad you found your way back and didn't run away." He said quietly.

"But! But I wouldn't run away!" Edward said trying to get his side out.

"I know you wouldn't, but well, sometimes... cats... kids... run away." Jack said trying to explain.

"Why?"

"I dunno, like... they hate it at home, think no one loves them. I know that you would never run away, they just... get worried." Jack said shrugging.

"Oh. So.."

"So don't run away." Jack smiled and lightly punched Ed's shoulder.

"I won't. I'll never run away again." He said firmly.

"But if you do run, I'm coming with you to keep you outta trouble." Jack said as he got up from the bed and booted Ed's butt towards the door. "C'mon, food's ready."

Days passed, then weeks. The family started to take Edward out more and more on excursions to slate his hunger for adventure. Edward couldn't help but ask questions about everything when they drove around, but knew that he shouldn't talk in front of other people. They had warned him many times to keep his mouth shut when in public. Edward remembered the kids that ran after him, so excited to kidnap the talking cat. He shuddered and tried to stay quiet outside, but curiosity got the better of him more often as Jack tried to hide the inquisitive voice by acting like he was talking on a hands free phone. Sometimes pretending to be a ventriloquist with Ed as the dummy but would boot him to remind him to shush it for his own good.

More and more neighbors were getting suspicious of the Johnson's strange pet, and tried spying on them in their own backyard. Rumors grew, and the family was getting the blame for the unrest in the community. Accusing Jack and his pet for every incident of local mischief, they soon became the main scape goats for everything. The family was getting fed up with their so called friendly neighbors.

Edward said he was sorry nearly 50 times a day to everyone at the house for all the trouble, and they told him more then 60 times a day that it wasn't his fault, and they would give anything to keep him safe with them. They didn't want his secret to get out but at the same time it was hard for him to spend long days shut away in the house. Especially in the days following when he started to shift into a human.

The first time was on a Sunday. Sept. 23rd 2007\. Jack had once again smuggled Ed into their local movie theater using his backpack, because the theater building was nicely dark all around so his little brother's presence wasn't so obvious. Jack made up different lies to make him feel alright enough to stay. Jack would say that they don't charge for furry admissions, or that they don't mind so long as he stays quiet through the movie, or the theater was having a two for one ticket special. The brothers loved the matinees because the theater was mostly empty. Usually waiting a few weeks after a popular movie came out to make sure there were as few people as possible.

"I still don't feel right, Jack." Ed said quietly as the previews ended and the movie began. They were the only two in the huge theater room, but Ed whispered anyway.

"Like I said before, it's ok. They only charge people over 10. I'm 12 and you're... younger then that."

"No I mean... I don't feel right."

"Hmm? What's wrong? Need to go to the bathroom?"

"No, no. I have a tummy ache. And my head hurts a little."

"Oh yeah, you do look sick... here, let's get outta here and go home."

"But you wanted to see the movie.." Edward looked up at Jack. Jack shook his head and padded the inside bottom of his backpack with his jacket to make it comfortable for him.

"Don't worry about it Ed, we can catch it some other time. Let's get you home." He held the bag open for Ed to jump in.

Ed shook his head at the offer, feeling very dizzy and not looking forward to the swaying motion of being toted in the backpack again. "I think something's going to happen. I can't... it's something big that's going to happen. And soon." Edward said getting breathless as he paced back and forth along the cushioned seats.

"Something big? Like how?"

"Big, you know. Something's going to, it's starting to..." He was short of breath and started to whine. "Jack I'm scared!" He shuddered as his fur started to fall off in spastic waves. He gnashed his teeth and couldn't stop the violently shaking that continued on as if he were possessed.

"Someone help!" Jack frantically called out, but there was no one manning the projector. There were only two people working at the small theater at the time, one was at the concession stand and the other was having a cigarette out front.

Bones were heard thumping and popping out of and back into a new place. Veins and arteries were seen protruding from the skin, struggling to send much needed blood everywhere at once.

"Ed what's happening? Tell me what to do!" Jack said anxiously as he watched him get larger and larger. Edward wailed, terrified of what was happening, and slid off of the seat and under the row in front as he cried and squirmed.

"Ed! Ed what's...? I don't understand! What's going on? How can I help you?" Jack held onto Ed's forelegs as they elongated into scrawny forearms, pulling him back up onto the seat next to him. Edward's eyes were shut tight and his hands grew as they covered his face. Growling and groaning he tried to keep himself from hurting Jack as he jerked around in the seat, clawing the chair in front of him with his hands and feet. His body was mangling itself and there was nothing Jack could do to help. His sinewy muscles filled out the thin boney protrusions of arms and legs.

Ed gasped for air twice and his breathing stopped suddenly and every one of his muscles relaxed and he slumped forward and down and didn't move. Jack was confused and scared as he checked for a heartbeat on the now bare human chest. Eyes half open and unfixed, Edward went completely limp for what seemed like an eternity.

"I don't... how do I help..." He sobbed as he hugged Edward in his arms and jostled him. "Wake up! Wake up, Ed." He rocked him back and forth.

With a sudden huge gasp of air Edward shot up momentarily void of sound. His chest out and arms straight out behind him, he faced the dark ceiling above them for a moment of quivering fear.

"AAAAAAGHH!!" He screamed, then coughing fitfully he fell hard back into the seat. He doubled over and clutched onto the back of the seat in front of him with full claws as he tried to catch a clear breath of air. Jack was so startled he was dumbstruck. Ed's now long fingers were curling in and out of the padded seat as he tried to figure out how they moved so freely now.

"You're alive!" Jack grabbed him with both arms and hugged him tightly. Ed put his hands on Jack and pushed him away as he tried to get some more air. Coughing and spitting phlegm over Jack's shoulder. His eyes watered and he leaned from one side to another trying to get back to standing on all fours in the now tighter space. He pushed at Jack again to have him let up on his bear hug grip.

"Oh sorry! What the hell happened? Are you ok?" Jack said barely restraining himself to his own seat.

"Jack... I.." he coughed some more. The agonizing pain had nearly dissipated as all the muscles started to relax from their cramped up state. He took some deep breaths and had to learn to breath deeper now with the larger lungs. Blood had to be pumped down the longer appendages and his heart hurt with the unaccustomed and nearly forgotten task.

"I don't know what this is..." Edward said with a hoarse voice and stared at his hands and then at his human body that was now nearly void of all fur. "Is this mange? I heard about dogs loosing their hair from mange... Is this something that happens with that too?" He worried, turning his hands over and over and prodding them, smelling his knuckles, he then bit them to make sure that they were in fact his own. He concentrated on where the sharp pain sensation from his still pointed canines were coming from. His skin turned from a light peachy gray to a reddish blush as the minute blood vessels started to show just under the skin around the bite. He stared at the color change up close and then realized it hurt to bite his hand so he stopped.

"Ow." He said as he licked the spot clean of spit, then trying to smooth out the fur that was no longer there. These hands looked like Jack's, but they were thinner, smaller, and Jack did not have any retractable claws in his fingertips. His attention turned now to the long legs that were before him and had to remind himself that they were his own and he was not sitting on Jack's lap. He brought up and smelled his knees and feet. Bending in the most extreme and indecent ways in the theater with one leg pointed straight up.

"Ed. Ed... umm... you can't do that here." Jack said looking around the huge room, making sure they were alone, as he was getting very embarrassed even though Ed was just a small boy. Edward put his hands on the row of seats in front of him and pulled himself up, kicked one leg after another and adjusted them so they were more or less straight, but at an angle from the floor. For a few minutes he played with the ground with his toes and realized it would be easier to let his new thicker human heel hit the floor to help support him. He stood hunched over still holding onto the back of the seat in front of him and slowly tried to straighten out his spine. Jack sat back and looked up at Ed's young, new face. Edward was smiling.

"I'm taller now then before." He said amused and confused. "Why are you looking at me like that. Wha'd I do wrong?" Ed recognized every facial expression Jack ever made or tried to hide but this one was altogether new.

Jack did not want to upset Ed, but for lack of anything more impossible and incredible to think about in his bewildered mind, one random thing popped into Jack's head as he looked at his pale skinned brother. He knew someone would sooner or later man the projector in the room above. "You're naked, Ed." Jack said matter of fact-ly. Then realized he failed completely to explain why this was now a problem. "Ed. You... are now a boy around 7 years old that needs clothes." He gestured at his nether regions as he stared unwavering at Edward's new face.

"I never wear clothes, why does that matter now?" Edward said as he looked around the empty room.

"Because... you're human now. I guess..." Jack stammered then couldn't believe what he had just said. "Why are you human now? How did you do that?"

"I don't know, can you change shape too?" Edward inquired. Apparently forgetting the fact that what he just did was impossible.

"No. Um... no one can... this is weird, this is way weird."

"Did I do something wrong?" Edward shrank back.

"No no no, you didn't do anything wrong, it's just... this never happens."

"But it just did."

"I know but it doesn't happen." Jack waved his hands at Edward's new body.

"But... it does on the news all the time."

"What?"

"Yeah, we were watching the news last night and there was a guy that changed into a wolf. So it does happen. But he was pretty mean when he was a wolf. Am I supposed to be mean now?" Edward asked innocently, reluctant to change his personality as well because he liked being nice.

Jack thought about all of the stories of werewolves that become ravenous beasts and figured that was what his little brother was worried about."No, no what? No, that was not the news, it was a movie, Ed." He motioned at the theater screen that now was showing a damsel in distress with music playing in the background.

"Oh. So I'm in a movie right now? People only change shape in movies so I am in one." He reasoned.

"Um. No, you're not in a movie... lord help us if you do get put on film. Oh shit! We can't let anyone see you like this! What would they think? Already we had to hide the fact you can talk but now we have to hide your... tail?" He pointed at Edward's tail that waved back and forth, ignoring the conversation completely and oblivious to the confusion it was causing.

"You still have your... never mind. We need to get you home without anyone seeing you."

"Well, I can't fit in your book bag now, and you say I need clothes because I'm human now. Because... all humans wear clothes."

"Yeah, all humans wear clothes." Jack grinned. A scene from the movie screen caught Jack's eye and he blocked Edward's view. 'Except that person.' He thought as a very scantily clad woman ran from one room to another.

Jack looked around for something for cover. "Umm... well, here's my jacket you can wear around your waist I guess. And take my shirt."

"So you don't need a shirt on?"

"It's ok for guys to not wear a shirt but not for girls. That doesn't mean go around shirtless all the time though. You should wear it for now, at least until we get home, you are the one that has to look normal." Jack stood up and ushered his young 7 year old brother to the aisle where he could strategically position the jacket and sleeves around Ed's waist to hide everything.

The tail kept on waving back and forth.

"Man how do I.." Jack tried to figure out how to tuck the tail into the jacket.

After 20 awkward minutes of teaching Edward the basics on how to walk on his longer thin legs, they left through the back exit to the building. Edward had the jacket around his waist with the oversized shirt tucked way down into it and the backpack was dragged behind, holding Ed's tail inside it. The small opening in the zipper pinched the hairs on his tail from time to time and made his leg kick. For safe measure Jack walked either in front of, beside, or behind Ed to block the view from the few passerby's.

Edward staggered near constantly and refused the urge to walk on all fours. When it looked like he would, Jack held him up gently by the arm and righted him. If Jack was strong enough, he would have preferred to simply carry Ed the half mile home. As it was, he had no choice but to stoop lower to throw Ed's arm around his shoulder and practically drag/walk him home as if he had an injured leg. But it looked more like Edward had had one too many at the bar. Despite the boys looking so young, some of the onlookers were convinced that the miscreants were out boozing and cruising.

Ed waved genially at every person and car with Jack saying as politely as possible, "Stop. Please stop getting their attention," every time, and would wave them off to mind their own business. Their neighbors watched the boys walk down the sidewalk in a quick double step, and the old biddies, with their hands to their mouths, continued gossiping over the fence line.

Jack didn't need to hear them to know that they were spreading even more rumors before they even got to their front steps. Many of the gawkers simply stood there and stared at them as they walked home.

"Nice to see you again!" Edward called out to one of them. "Oh wow! Jack my voice sounds different!"

"Shhh, Ed for crying out loud, be quiet! They don't know who you are."

"Oh right. Shouldn't we say hi?" He looked over his shoulder at the few neighbors clumping together to form a quizzical looking mob.

"Later, later." Jack said as they finally got to their front yard just as Ed's tail swung loose from the backpack. Jack picked him clean off the ground and carried him inside the front door and shut it firmly behind, then fell to his butt laughing. Edward was relieved to see Jack on the floor which meant he too could get down from his hind legs. They were beginning to hurt so he started to lick them.

"Oh man." Jack wiped his brow, still chuckling.

"Hi Jack, Ed, how was the movie? Was it over already?" Janet's voice called from the kitchen.

"Oh uh, we just got an ice cream instead, I've got the extra money for ya." He hastily searched his pocket for the dollars that were supposed to pay for Ed's ticket on their mother's insistence.

"Here ya go." Jack said as he stopped Ed from entering the kitchen.

"But I'm way hungry." He said to Jack. Jack held his finger to his lips and silently shushed him. Irrationally worried that he would get the blame for Ed's transformation.

"Mmm? I thought you said you got ice... oh hi there. Who's your friend, Jack?"

"Oh uhh... umm..." He stammered.

"Mom, it's me." Edward said with a smile as he sat upright on the floor with his feet drawn in, knees out, and his hands splayed on the ground, steadying him. Janet took a quizzical step back. Jack helped Ed to his feet and had him lean up against his side for support.

"No really, who are..." She stopped when she saw something move behind the short boy. "What's that?"

"Mom, you know, it's my tail of course." Ed explained brightly.

"Jack, who is this."

"It's Ed. I know, I know, it's crazy but this..." He pulled Edward's long fluffy tail in front of Ed to prove it was attached and then showed off Ed's signature emerald slit eyes. "This is Ed."

Janet shook her head and took a step back then forward, then back again. Then decided to stand there for a while. "What happened? How?"

"I asked too, we have no idea. We were just starting to watch the movie and he were-wolfed on me."

"But I'm not mean." He held up his hands and waved them to keep her from worrying.

"Umm well, I don't know what to do about this." She stared at him wobbling slightly. "Is he alright?"

"Well, it's still Ed. He hasn't changed really, he just turned human."

"Ed... umm Honey, are you alright? This is incredible, Ed how did you do that?"

"I don't know. We were sitting down and then I started to hurt real bad and then I got bigger and turned my body different. Jack says that what I did was impossible, but I don't think it is impossible because I did it. Maybe you can change into a cat if you try hard enough!" Edward said smiling.

"No Honey, I don't think it's as easy as that..." she said to Edward and took Jack aside for a minute as Ed proceeded to inspect his new body more thoroughly now that he was safe at home. "Jack, can he change back?" She asked in amazement. "Or change into something else?"

"Maybe he can change back... I think. Even though he said it hurt and he was scared, it was as if he had done it before. It's really hard to explain because I've never seen anything like that before. Maybe we should like, research or something to find an answer. Like they tell us in class all the time, when you want to find something out, look it up." Jack said. He then disappeared into his room and brought out a spare pair of pants and a smaller shirt over to Ed.

"Here, these are my old kindergarten clothes from the boxes in my closet. You look like you are what, 6? 7 years old? These should fit ya."

"Oh thanks, Jack." Ed went to Jack's room to find more clothes.

Janet sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and stared into empty space for a little while, chuckling.

"You ok, Mom?" Jack leaned into her view.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine, sure. Umm when does your father get home?"

Jack shrugged, "8, I think."

"Umm call him up and tell him we need some... stuff." She circled her hand around in the air. "Stuff, for Ed... like clothes and stuff. Fish. A lot more tuna fish..."

"Oookay. I will do that." Jack patted his Mom's head and then went to help Ed with some of the boxes of old toys and clothes, very happy at the thought of Ed being able to play with them now. Already Jack began planning on all of the future trips and adventures to take him on.

Janet sighed and relaxed a little, laughing to herself she thought about how she was going to explain the extra plate set at the table that night. However, later that night Edward changed back into a cat just before their father walked into the house, and it took a long long conversation to convince him that Ed had been human just a half hour ago.

The Johnson’s bought several things over the next few weeks to make Ed feel more at home. His own wardrobe, some childrens toys, and a twin bed so he wouldn't have to sleep on the couch when human. Henry found the time to build him a dresser and a chest for Ed's new cloths and things, and was placed in the office/spare room where somebody dropping by to visit wouldn’t find out that they had an unexplained extra child living there. They did not want to raise trouble with the authorities, accused of kidnapping Ed. Then, if he was discovered to be not a full human, the chaos that would ensue. Until they figured this out, he was much safer with them then not, besides, he's part of the family.

Edward would change shape nearly every day or so after that day at the movies. Despite their best precautions, people noticed. It was clear that everyone was talking about the family's sudden new arrival. Whispering about them kidnapping and keeping him locked up in the basement. Some would see Edward when the kids would snoop and window peek. As much as Ed tried to hide from them, the denizens still were relentless. Some days Jack would open up the windows and shout at the kids to go away and leave them alone. That worked for only a little while.

On one bright sunlit day Henry sat on the back porch drinking a cup of coffee in the morning hours. Edward nudged the door open with his head and paw and Henry leaned over in his chair to open it for him.

"What's up sport?" He asked as Ed made his way around the metal frame of the chair and hopped up onto the small wrought iron coffee table next to him. Ed cocked his head to the side as he tried to phrase the question in his head. Edward was confused at what the neighbor had said and had to think about how to word it.

"Daddy?" He asked in a small voice, remembering to keep it down outside. Henry beamed at being called 'Daddy' by him. Figuring that it was only because Ed had never heard Henry's name, only what Jack had called him. Same thing for Janet, she was named only as 'Mom' by Jack and Henry. Henry referred to her when talking to Jack as 'your Mom' and with Janet saying 'your Dad' to have them go do something. So Edward assumed for a long time, that those were their names. Henry spun his cup around in his hand and leaned over slightly.

"Yeah?" He asked quietly into his cup to hide his mouth moving should anyone be watching.

Edward asked, "What is a puckin stay?"

"A what?" Henry chuckled and took another sip of his coffee and set it down. He looked in Ed's inquisitive green eyes and thought about what he might have heard and gotten confused. "Where did you hear puckin sta.." He stopped short and grit his teeth and got up angrily and shot accusing looks at all the houses around, waiting for someone to dare show their face. "Did someone say that to you? Who called you that?" He demanded.

Ed backed up thinking he did something wrong. "Umm, I'm sorry." Edward said feeling frightened and ashamed for bringing it up.

"Ed, you have nothing to be sorry about," he sat back down and put a kind hand on the nervous cat's back. "Ed, who called you a pucking stay." Henry was fuming on the inside and trying to hide it. Anyone that would call his boy a 'fucking stray' would have to answer to him immediately, that is, after Ed went back inside.

"That lady across the street. She says that I tore up her yard. But I was watching from my front yard. The squirrels were digging up stuff everywhere over there." Edward said pointing to the neighbor's house with the mildly manicured yard. Henry was well familiar with that crotchety old lady and her layabout son.

"Ed, this is important, ok? Did you say anything to her?"

"No, you told me not to talk to anyone so I didn't, I just ran back inside." He said trembling slightly.

Henry stroked Ed's back over and over to calm him down but had the effect of calming his own nerves as well.

"Good boy. You did good. Don't worry about it, I'll deal with them. You didn't do anything wrong, Son." He repeated over and over. Occasionally glancing around the high fence and surrounding areas for anyone within earshot of their conversation. Most neighbors had day jobs with the exception of the few that made it their sole business in life to find out what everyone else was doing with their life. Gossipers.

The neighbors were becoming more and more brazen. Purposefully running into them at supermarkets, stores and at the banks. They couldn't 'accidentally' run into Henry during the day because he worked at a closed construction site, so they went after Janet and the boys. The old nosy ladies proved to be the worst, and would usually try the ploy of starting off with the customary weather talk but quickly turn spiteful and gossipy. When they didn't get the answer they wanted, they became downright mean and rude. Shouting accusations that their pet was tearing up their flower patches or leaving droppings in their yards. Jack defended Ed but couldn't let Ed speak for himself. The family eventually retreated to the house more and more, just as they were getting even more and more blame for vandalism’s. Every single incident of misfortune was put square on their innocent shoulders.

"How can we be doing all that stuff to their yards when we don't even go out anymore?" Jack was furious at his neighbors. Even his friends from school started chiding him on spending more time with his pet then with them. Finally Jack had had enough and told them all to leave him alone, and that his cat had never made fun of him the way they were doing.

Soon it was obvious that the family couldn't stay in town. Others were getting too close to knowing the truth that their new arrival was not normal. Henry worked mainly in housing construction, and was able to gather information on different private building sites around the US, searching for places that might be welcoming and safe for his family. Finally after what seemed like forever, he found the right city. But in fact, it found him.

While searching online he found it easier to get information if he became a member of some chat rooms for the 'persecuted unique'. Sometimes asking if there were other people with animalistic characteristics, and asking how they cope with it in public. One day, after describing the many things that their so called friends were doing and saying, he received a anonymous email invitation to visit a small tucked away town in the Bitterroot mountain range.

The Johnson's bought a few maps and scanned over the area the email said the town was located. They couldn't find it. They poured over internet maps where the town was supposed to be, aerial, road, hiking trail maps and even electrical grid maps. Still they couldn't find it. They called the state's tourist information center. They never heard of it.

Henry was getting fed up with the run around. He wrote back to the email sender of the invite asking politely for clarification, confirmation and information, and a few days later got a reply with a request for their home address, or one that they could use for their own privacy concerns.

The sender of the email didn't divulge important information online and insisted that the town remain completely private. At the end of the email there was a link to a single page that was to be deleted from existence in less then 3 days. That page simply had an address to a PO box and nothing more. So after a family discussion, Henry sent off a letter to the PO box address with some photos of the whole family and Edward's two forms inside the envelope with a bit more info on his condition. Henry didn't want to loose this opportunity and was obsequious to the request for information. Any place that was _this_ secretive was definitely worth checking out. It seemed too good to be true, but they were getting desperate.

One random morning Henry walked out to the mailbox, eating from a small packet of corn nuts in his pocket. He pulled out the mail.

Crunch Crunch Crun..."yes!" He choked on a kernel that was sucked into his windpipe. After a coughing fit he wiped the tears from his eyes and spat out the offending kernel. Looking at a neighbor with his arms folded right across the street, he smiled wide and smugly fingered him in lieu of a wave. Then turning on his heel with a bemused grin, he walked happily up to and into the house and called for a family meeting.

"It's here!" Henry couldn't hide his excitement. He took off his leather coat and missed the coat hook completely. Jack and Ed were in the attic throwing small pebbles at the teens that ventured too close to the house. The young trespassers were completely befuddled about where the projectiles were coming from. Jack and Edward closed the small circular window after chucking the last of their weapons out the window in a shower of dust and tiny rocks. A miniature sidewalk whirlwind swirled the particles around and had the desired effect of scaring the kids into finally leaving their backyard. The boys were just relieved that their Dad hadn't seen them from the front of the house. Jack jumped down from the square hole access to the attic and Ed followed behind, closing the hatch to the attic while perched on Jack's shoulders. He then flipped off his back and raced him down the stairs. Janet shook her head at the boys but smiled as she followed them down into the kitchen.

"Let's see where our new house will be!" Henry carefully opened up the thick office envelope and dumped out the contents. One of which was a black unlabeled key on a black keychain which read 'Johnson' with a small 4 digit number underneath. It was black shiny letters on a dull black background. Ed had to turn it in the light to read it with his better then average eyesight. One of the contents was a smartly printed and designed home made card which read like a brochure. There was a picture of a house on the front, almost looking like it was straight from a catalog.

'Amystriss is perhaps the one place on Earth that is perfect for you.

We just know that you will love our quaint and unique town.

It is nestled in the valley of several gorgeous mountains.

You and your family will feel secure here like no other place on Earth.

However, you will need the key for entry into town as we

strive to maintain our privacy for your safety.

Simply call our town council for an appointment,

and we will give you step by step instructions

on how to find our little village.

Please don't delay! Call today!'

 

Henry passed the card over to Janet who read it and shrugged. "I guess we should call them."

"The number is on the back of the card." Said Edward looking up at it in Janet's hands. Edward was never really tall as a boy, but he did grow some since moving in with the Johnson's. Jack tussled Ed’s hair and a play fight ensued. Henry and Janet were now used to their comedy routine and continued to chat lightly over the laughs, growls, and the loud thumps on the surrounding surfaces.

"I call basement!" Ed yelped as Jack pulled on his tail.

"No fair I want the basement, you can sleep outside!" Jack now yelped because Ed pulled his hair.

"Nuts to you, I called it first!" Ed said as he got his tail back when Jack pried Edward’s hands off of his hair.

"Dibs! Ha! I called dibs first." Jack grabbed Ed and held him upside down by his legs close to his ankles. Ed had his hands free now to tickle torture Jack.

"Gah! No nails cheater! Stop! Hahahaha stop!" Jack cried as he dropped Ed to the floor. Ed regained his footing, spun around and kept on going. Jack managed to grab a hold of Ed’s hands and held them stretched out and away from his stomach. Ed had an idea. Slipping off his sandals he brought up his legs one after another in a strange dance that no human could possibly copy, just to tickle him some more with his clawed toes. Edward laughed harder at Jack as he was trying to figure out how to stop all of his little brother's limbs from getting a shot at his now very tender and red underbelly.

Between pained laughter he cried foul, "I didn't know you could do that! No fair!" Jack let go of Ed and started to run away.

Ed was ready to pursue when Henry reached his hand out and pulled his shirt to keep him from pouncing. "It's ok, you can have the basement." He grinned, then said, "But you will be in charge of laundry."

Ed gaped at him and shrugged, it was an acceptable offer. Basements were usually huge and nice and dirty. "Didja hear that, Jack?! The basement's mine! Dad said so!" Ed called out as he started to track down his prey, checking every room in the house but the most obvious one as he thought that would be too obvious, even for Jack.

Jack was naturally in his own room and was already throwing stuff from his closet to the bed in anticipation for packing up right then and there.

Henry and Janet sat down at the kitchen table and fiddled with the key. "Why an all black key?" Janet held it up and could just barely read their name and the number on it. She stole glimpses from the corner of her eye, keeping watch on the boys as they chased each other into the backyard.

"Does it say what the number means?"

"No, it could be our house address? Do they already have a house ready??"

"That is unlikely... but... hmmm.." Henry looked at the card again, flipped it over, looking at the picture of the house, and looked at the phone number. "I don't want to call assuming that this is our house key. Might be a bit presumptuous."

"Why would they send us a key then?" she fiddled with it for a little while. It was obviously very important and they wondered what they might be getting themselves into. "This 'Amystriss' sure is 'A mystery'," she chuckled. Outside they could see the boys running around in the backyard. "I want them to live in a better neighborhood then this, but is it fair to them?" She asked resting her head on her palm.

"What do you mean, Janet?"

"Well, Jack has been here since he was 2 years old, Ed’s been here since... that day. Lord knows where he was prior to that..." Janet stopped and rubbed her arms as she remembered what happened that day. "Henry we can't tell him what we think about it. Ok?" Janet looked deep into Henry's eyes.

Henry nodded and said, "One day we will have that talk, but for now let's get some moving boxes together. He grinned reassuringly and squeezed her shoulders lovingly as he left the kitchen.

Ed peeked in the windows and saw them chat for a little longer in the conjoined living room. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying but knew it was about him. His spying was interrupted by Jack throwing a Frisbee right past Ed and bounced off of the siding with a loud metallic bang.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The Center's recovery van swerved to the side, avoiding the carcass of a deer on the curb. One of the tranquilizer guns hit the inside door and made a loud metallic banging noise that reverberated the door for a second. Edward still laid sleeping, and continued his trip down 'memory lane' in his dreams. One of the men had made a little make shift bed for him out of the blankets and nets that they had used to catch the other cats. They drove on for another half hour towards the private runway for their plane ride to the Center. It had to be refueled from the trip it had made earlier, bringing Janet there in a hurry as per Albert's orders. The plane's gas was expensive so they restricted its use to important business only, and Albert made it clear that Edward was to be flown down immediately. Otherwise it would have been an 8 hour trip instead of the hour and a half.

"I think Fifteen is dreaming." he said watching the bedraggled feline sleep.

"What?" the driver asked, noticeably drowsy.

"Umm when we get there, I think I should be the one to fly the plane. I'm good to go."

"Right, My co-pilot, 'joker' here is already out for the night, he never was that good on any long trips, always falling asleep soon as it's put into gear. Stupid nick name he chose for himself, Joker, he's not even great at dumb blond or even Chuck Norris jokes." he said giving the sleeping man a shove. The joker just shuffled a bit and snored loudly at him.

"When we transport Fifteen to the plane's hold we have to make sure he doesn't move too much. He was torn up pretty bad by those birds they sent in to retrieve him. Jeez, you'd think they'd never done search and recovery before." He shook his head at the small spotted red patches of blood that seeped through the new bandages over the wounds on Edward's back.

"Like you say... let him sleep. Albert would be pissed if he's half dead from exertion. He should be able to heal himself by the time we get there. Then we just change the bandages again and bring him in." He said just loud enough for the passenger to hear. He drank some more cold coffee, smacking his lips at the bitterness. Turning the thermostat up he checked the vents to make sure they were still working. "How could Fifteen stand living in that quaint candy ass town for so long? I've only been there a day and already I'm sick of this 'American life'. And I don't like the busy cities either, if I could, I'll sink Manhattan along with all those big ass, 'I'm better then you' cities. Fuckum. I've got a match, let's torch mainstream USA. Make 'em think they're moving to the sun. We need to take out the trash, that's what my Dad always called it. People always saying that being nice is good, yeah frickin right. My evil twin and I respectfully disagree." He lit a new cigarette and took a long puff, blowing it at the Joker.

"Are you just going to keep ranting about one unrelated thing after another till my head falls off? I didn't realize we were on the toddler highway. Quit whining and get driving. Look, there's the Sitco gas station, the mini airport is right behind it. The runway is that old street that goes on for half a mile." The man in the back said as he turned again towards Edward. He covered him up and secured the blanket underneath the mat so he couldn't wiggle his way out while sleeping.

Edward's mind wandered here and there as he slept. Events played out as if it happened in front of him and he was not a part of them. He felt like he was watching a television show of his life and let the images and memories wash over him. He recalled the library in Amystriss and the event flew by as if it had translucent wings on wind. His mind swam in its eddies as he reminisced. He did not want to forget anything from his life with Jack. It felt like the past was slipping away, one day at a time. He somehow understood that in order to preserve the memory clearly he must first try to put the random thoughts and conversations in order, holding back the whim of letting it all go away into the ether with hopeless bleak despair soon to follow when he wakes up.

He felt a pressure on his side and then had an impression of the color red and how it wafted in and around him. Ignoring the fact that it was blood, he focused instead on the notion of the color until he could practically see it. Concentrating on it, he put aside all other random thoughts that drifted by. Ignoring how ridiculous it was to force yourself to dream in any other way then how your unconscious mind wants to dream, he tried the trick he used to remember the name on the card at the hospital. To simply will it to happen in a way that makes sense. He relaxed a little as he thought of other things that would help him focus.

'Red balloons... where do they make balloons? Red morning sun, but why does the sun shine? No no... red, red clown noses, red bicycle horns, red plates, red circular disks, flat red disks... there...right there.' and he was able to see it clearly now in his mind's eye. He smiled.

Ed recalled the Frisbee game in the old neighborhood when it was just he and his odd older brother. Jack would try to throw the Frisbee in a completely random and distant direction but it rarely could escape Edward’s hands. And if Ed couldn't catch it, it was usually stuck high in a tree and Ed could retrieve them within a minute. Jack liked to make it challenging for Ed to play, because he himself wasn't very good at throwing the Frisbee directly at people, but when playing with Ed, it was more fun to try _not_ to throw it at him. Anyone watching would think Jack was cruel but Ed loved the chase.

On their way back from the library, still running alongside the streets of Amystriss, Ed passed by one house with a lone Frisbee on the roof. He split from Jack who stopped and put down the book bag with the witch, warlock and research books tucked inside. Jack took the chance to rest and looked to his left to see Ed already half way up the tree next to the house. Jack leaned forward and held his knees as he gasped for breath. It's not like Jack was out of shape, but rather, Ed was in much better shape for running.

"Man has it been awhile since we ran, Ed." Jack said more or less to himself.

"What? Hang on I will be down in a second!" His voice called from somewhere amongst the leaves. Edward nimbly hopped onto the roof of the house. He looked around from one peak to the other and saw the Frisbee. On all fours he went over to it and picked it up carefully. The pitch of the roof was extremely steep and no person besides Ed could have gotten the Frisbee down without a ladder or rock climbing gear.

Ed simply tossed it down to land neatly in front of Jack as he was still hunched over, catching some much needed breath.

"A Frisbee? Ed what the hell?"

Ed smiled and went to the lower gutter of the house then leaped down head first, landing on all fours, he stood upright then strutted over to Jack.

"Well if you aren't going to throw it back..." Ed huffed as he picked it back up and threw it gracefully to land on the front stoop of the house.

"Later, we can play when we have our own Frisbees." Jack said motioning that they should get home because their dad hinted at some surprise trip for Ed later that day.

Ed picked up Jack's heavy book bag and walked beside him.

Jack grinned as he realized that with 40 pound Ed carrying a 15 pound book bag he just may have a chance at racing home. Jack started to run again, staggering and sweating. Ed struggled to balance the book bag evenly along his spine and caught up with Jack as they ran along the clean streets of Amystriss. They both gave a quick friendly wave at a few people outside tending gardens. As they got closer to their house they started to recognize more and more houses and people.

"I think that lady's name is Margaret something... Carol." Jack said.

"Mom said it's 'Maggie' or 'Mrs. Carol', she hates being called 'Margaret'." Ed corrected him.

"Apparently they work together at the mall."

"I like her, she's short like me." Ed smiled and waved again.

"Of course she's short, half of the town is short dude!" Jack ran up to the front door and went in. Maggie knelt down into her garden shrubberies again and continued pulling weeds. Ed took a big breath of the fresh air and thanked heaven for this life.

He went in and sat at the window for awhile as the others were taking the plastic off of the other windows to let in the fresh air. He lightly remembered them saying something about a new dog but the conversation slipped his mind. He remembered seeing Jack putting his jacket back on with Janet and Henry smiling at him as he walked into the kitchen.

Edward's dreaming mind knew that he had recalled this part of the event only the day before when he and Jack were heading to the construction site. But he still let it play out and watched in omnipresence as he and the family went to find a good working dog for him from the Center for the Blind in Constantinople. He let the memory unfold as his spirit lifted at the first sight of Dan the man coming home with them. The first time they played around and how the dog was so accepting of Edward no matter what shape he was in. How they laid in a furry pile in front of the TV and watched the movie that was on.

Edward struggled to keep the events playing because he felt that if he dwelt too long on Dan he would likely forget other things about his old life with the Johnson's.

He thought about his new town and how peaceful it was. So perfect. The welcoming committee, even thought they perfectly lived up to its name, couldn't compare to the festivities that awaited the new students to the school.

To acquaint the newcomers, the school hosts 2 sleepovers at the school, with one that coincides with the town's founding anniversary date. Every student is invited to join in activities, peer groups and games. The school has several fundraisers to afford some light fireworks and several local live bands kick off the anniversary of the town's foundation in the main square. Nearly every resident is there for the first night and the kids are taken to the school afterwards for the big sleepover. In the morning they are greeted by several speakers, regaling on how the town was founded and what their mission statement is. Like a second thanksgiving, the families all talk about what it means to be a part of the community, encouraging the kids to continue the spirit of Amystriss.

The new environment and the whole change in attitude and scenery is sometimes too much for the newcomers to take in all at once. For kids it can be scary to move somewhere new and have to make new friends. That is why the sleepovers are so helpful in making them feel welcome. One by one they are called on by a teacher to say their name, how old they are and what they like best, as well as what happened during summer that was fun for them. No one is pressured into talking, if the kids are shy that’s ok. Playing games and group activities help everyone to get to know each other, and many of them will likely choose to live in Amystriss long after school is over for them.

Jack and Edward found it a bit odd at first that this community would be so very welcoming. They both had gotten used to keeping on the periphery and finding the fastest way out of any confrontation. For instance, if someone stops them on the street to talk, they have already planned 3 escape routes in their minds.

The school's teachers would start off the events by pairing up people that already knew each other, plus one newcomer for a game, then split them up for the next one once they had gotten to know someone else. And on and on, until the kids got to know at least the names of half of everyone there. In the days following, most of the students would know the rest of them by word of mouth. It helped that the school was not a very big one and attendance was very high for the school sleepovers. The alumni would show up voluntarily to help with decorations, food preparations and activities.

The first day and hour of the event, absolutely everyone knew who the scrawny boy named Edward was. He felt safe enough to show off why they had to move to Amystriss, at first claiming it was because of his cat slit eyes, naturally growing striped hair and clawed fingers. He wasn't quite comfortable to show off his tail though, and throwing the word shapeshifter out there right off the bat might also be a bit much...

Jack was on guard all day, just waiting for the name calling or taunting that never came. In fact, its non-existence made him somewhat even more nervous, thinking that they were just biding their time. It was Ed who had to tell him it was ok. His uncanny sense of feeling people out had told him that there honestly wasn’t anyone in the building that meant harm. Edward had just about everyone come up to him and have a chat. Lots of questions abound but he knew that they just wanted to get to know him. Fortunately he was in human form when everyone first met him, but in the afternoon, Ed had to slip away with Jack while he reluctantly transformed.

The two of them stayed in the dark classroom while Ed had a massive panic attack about revealing this side of him to so many strangers at once. Convinced that it was just a matter of time before pitchforks were held on high and torches were lit.

Mr. Randolph noticed that they were missing from his set of activities and went to make sure they didn’t get lost during the previous scavenger hunt around the school. He had one of the parents start the game he set up, and went looking for the missing students. He overheard their conversation long before he found them.

"They won't understand, Jack."

"This is a good school. Remember that I was going to school here, for the last few months? It is alright Bro, I trust these guys. Besides I thought you wanted to come here, been asking me thousands of questions a day about my classes and teachers. But, we can go home if you feel uncomfortable."

"No no, it's just... I don’t want to be alone at home all the time. I’ve read every book at the house 3 times already. I want to learn more then what books have."

"Sooo... let's just umm..." Jack said trying to figure out what to do.

Ed looked around the room they were in, finger paintings and lesson charts hung on the wall. A photo of the home-room class that had previously occupied this room caught his eye. "I can't sense what they will do until they see me like this... I'm not entirely sure that they will... I dunno, accept me the way you do. I mean... well, what convinced you to look at a talking cat and say 'Hmm, I wanna make that fuzzball freak my brother'?" He said mockingly.

"Don’t you dare say that. I know for a fact that you are not a freak."

"How could you know that if I don't even know?"

"Because, I just do alright? And you've been my brother since, forever. I don’t give a crap what other people think and neither should you." Jack sat down heavily next to Ed on the ground and punched him.

"Ow! What was that for?" Edward balked and groomed his sore shoulder.

"For being such an idiot!"

Edward glared up at him and suddenly laughed out loud. "Shut up." He said and punched him back with his paw and it had no effect whatsoever to Jack besides making him grin. After a few minutes of silence, Mr. Randolph was about to enter the room but stopped short when he heard them talk again.

"C'mon dork, let's just go say hi... again. You already told them that you do this so it's not a big surprise." Jack said retying his shoelaces.

"Well, I didn’t tell _everyone."_

"Who didn’t you tell?"

"Umm..." Edward looked around the room avoiding eye contact with Jack.

Jack leaned in, already figuring the answer to his next question, "Did you tell _anyone_?"

"Yeah... yeah, I told our teachers..."

"That was yesterday at that parent teacher meeting, did you tell anyone today?"

"No." Ed looked down.

"Such a dork, I’ve got to do everything, huh. C'mon, let's get back before they send some nervous ninny to go looking for us."

Mr. Randolph was taken aback by being called a 'ninny' but still ducked into a side room as he heard them pass. Coming up behind them in the hallway and intercepting them before they got to the gymnasium, he said, "Hello boys, did you find the bathroom ok?" He said glancing at each one in turn, trying not to stare at Ed.

"Oh um yeah, we're good. You're Mr. John Randolph right?" Jack asked.

"The kids call me Mr. R and you arrrreee..." He asked politely even though he was well aware what their names were.

"Oh I’m Jack and this is my brother, Edward Johnson. We moved here in February. I finished up my last grade here earlier this year, but this is Ed's first time in any school."

"We get a lot of students that had first been home-schooled." He said, remembering to smile and not look as stoic and imposing as his friends always say he is. "Have you gotten to know many people here?"

"Well, yeah kinda. Mostly just our neighbors." Edward said quietly.

"Welp, that’s why we are here right? Make new friends, get to know everyone and have fun." He rested his hand on Jack's shoulder instead of shaking his hand and knelt down to pat Ed on the back. Ed was just glad he didn’t ruffle his fur like everyone wants to do when they first meet him. He never understood why people feel free to mess with his fur. People don't do that to stranger's heads when they meet so why is it that he is so lucky? He hated being so soft and fluffy. He grumbled as he walked alongside Jack back towards the gym, knowing that there waits hundreds of kids with dirty hands just waiting to pet his furry head. That's assuming they didn't flee in terror from the talking animal or want to kill the monster. He gulped as he heard the masses of kids down the hall.

As they turned the corridor to enter the gym, they found everyone more or less facing the stage at the far end of the gym on the stage. There stood some of the teachers and a few students in front of everyone.

"Hi, my name is Jason Winther and my wife Amber, we teach the 4th and 5th graders music and art. We look forward to having you in our classes, and feel free to join our after school pep band for middle school."

"That’s the 4th floorers for you new guys!" Amber Winther said amiably. Some students cheered in the crowd at the mentioning of their band and floor. Jason put a finger to his smiling lips and the girls settled down.

"Ok, now we are going to invite the newest members of our school to come on up here and introduce yourselves."

Edward paced on the empty chairs close to the back row. Half of him wanted to get up there and get it over with, and the other half wanted to run away at top speed. Jack leaned way over to Edward's seat and said quietly, "Come on, I’ll go if you go."

Jack could see that Ed wanted to introduce themselves quickly and efficiently, figuring that this opportunity was the fastest and easiest way to get it behind them. They thought of the added bonus of having the teachers keep the kids in check should they try to start something, say, an angry mob.

As they shot questions and glances at each other, their attention was drawn to the whole new class of first graders who weren’t afraid at all to go up and talk to everyone using the microphone. Jack pointed at the stage as one kid was compelled to give his life story up there, surprisingly similar to what Jack and Ed had gone through regarding their old neighbors. They looked at each other and nodded slightly and got up hesitantly. Mr. R was standing behind them and gave them a nudge to get up there fast before they ran out of first graders. Thankfully it wasn’t just young kids going up, there were several that were around their own ages that went up and talked.

Jack and Ed queued up behind and waited anxiously to walk up the stage steps.

"Jack I’m not ready, should we?" Ed cowered down as he looked way up to him. A mix of shyness and fear all over his face.

"Shh, yes we should, after this we can go. Do it like ripping a band-aid off, quick and painless.”

"But I've never worn a band-aid before."

"It's a figure of speech, not everyone heals as fast as you, some of us wear band-aids and when you need to take them off it's better to do it quick so the sticky stuff doesn’t hurt more then it needs to. Ugh, never mind, I'm just saying we should just get up there and say hi at least."

Edward reluctantly agreed but couldn’t stop shaking while nodding. Other kids waiting in line leaned over and had quizzical looks on their faces as they tried to find the owner of the young raspy voice. Ed's heart raced and he breathed faster as he stared upwards at the stage steps.

"Next up I see we have Jack and Edward Johnson from 6th street." Jason said as he encouraged them forward.

Jack waited for Edward because he was in front but when he took his time to go 10 feet he stepped clear over him and got to the microphone giving a sheepish wave at everyone and letting Ed take his time.

"Hi, well my name is Jack Johnson, but I'm not in a band! Heh... uhh, you know, Jack Johnson the singer... Anyways, I'm joining the 7th grade this year. I like loud music and action movies." He said nervously, trying not to show it. He shifted from one foot to the other as he tried to think of what else to say as an introduction. He glanced down and saw Ed practically cowering from the edge of the stage. Jack knew it wasn't because of the heights and figured that Ed needed a leg up on introducing himself. "And um that’s my brother Ed, say 'hi' Ed."

"Umm hi." He said under his breath. The whole gym sat upright and some stood to get a better look at him.

Jack floundered but kept smiling to reassure everyone, "I’m 13, and Ed is a little over a year old, but he is also 9 years old. It's a bit complicated."

Ed crept over to Jack, trying to focus only on the stage and his feet to keep them moving closer to the microphone. Muttering under his breath, "Band-aid, Band-aid.."

"What? The cat is 9? Where is Edward?" Some kids asked in the crowd who couldn't see them clearly.

"Oh umm Edward is the cat, he’s also human half of the time. He’s my brother."

There was a noticeable pause sweeping the whole audience. People murmured some, looking at the stage at the two of them and then each other. Half of them questioned if it was a joke or a prank on them and were put off by it. Others laughed at the confused faces, but gradually quieted down when there remained no indication that Jack was lying up there. Jack stood awkwardly in the spotlight with Ed at his feet, staring at the mob.

Thankfully, someone who was brave enough spoke up, breaking the silence. "So you are a cat too?"

"Umm no, uhh just Ed changes shape, he was human just earlier tonight. You probably talked to him before he shifted..." Jack said trying to bridge the gap in their minds. This was always the tricky part in his introductions.

One of the teachers brought over a chair so Edward could stand on it to be seen by everyone in the gym. Both Jack and Ed were happy that people weren’t being pushy at all with their questions, and they could tell that they were simply curious. The boys were willing to explain and knew that it might take some time for everyone to get used to him. Ed nodded at Jack to hold the microphone closer.

"Hi again everyone. I am Edward Johnson, umm you know, ‘that kid with the slit eyes’ umm, this is why they look like that. Um, some of you were asking me earlier.. My eyes stay the same but that’s just about all that does. I am a... umm, what did we say sounded cool?" He whispered to Jack.

"Shape-shifter." Jack whispered back and smiled at everyone again. While Ed talked, Jack eventually got nervous standing up there and not doing anything, so he decided to make hand gestures behind Ed’s back. Mainly bunny ears and moose antlers out of Ed's wide field of vision, which was no easy task. A few kids giggled but kept quiet out of respect for the speaker, and because the teachers were shushing them into submission. Edward could sense Jack was goofin off by the reaction of the audience and flicked his tail at him but still had his eyes forward. Ignoring his attempts to distract him, he was secretly glad for it because it showed that he was no threat to them, and that pitchforks would be unnecessary.

"I am a shape-shifter. And I don’t know how or why, we never did figure it out. But don’t worry, I know you all have seen some scary movies or TV shows where the person changes into some monster or mean creature and I want to reassure you all that I’m not like that. I just change shape, I’m still nice!" He waved a paw at some of the little kids in the front and they giggled and waved back. Jack stopped making antlers when he saw Mr. R from across the gym give a warning signal to him.

"So um yeah, any questions?" He asked waving a paw out while holding the mic upright on the chair with his other paw. He wobbled a bit and put both hands onto the mic when it started to slip from his grip. His clumsiness was endearing to the older kids and they instantly liked him after that. The younger kids couldn't wait to make friends with him as soon as possible. Ed looked around at all of the friendly inquisitive faces, waiting for the usual questions. However, he wasn't prepared for some of them.

"What’s your favorite color?"

"Oh! Umm never really thought about it... blue I think." He tilted his head. No one had ever asked him that before. Then nodded in the direction of another raised hand.

"What grade were you in at your old school?" A teen asked from the back. Edward looked up at Jack to answer for him, his shyness was starting to creep back in.

"Ed’s never gone to school before but he has read a whole bunch of books at home. They’re starting him off at umm what grade was it again?" He looked to some of the teachers and they said back the grade that would best suit Ed, so Jack repeated, "4th grade. But he’s so smart he might skip one or two." Jack said. At mentioning 4th grade the same group of pep band girls 'whoooed' again, holding 4 fingers in the air.

"4th grade sounds good." Edward said and winked at the girls, making everyone laugh.

"So when do you change shape? Can you turn into something else?"

"No, not as far as I know, I shift between human and cat at any-time really. I never know when it's gonna happen so Jack helps me out a lot."

"What’s your favorite book?"

"Umm, 'Encyclopedia of American Wildlife'." Ed said smiling then it faded as the confused faces looked around at each other. Ed could tell that it was probably beyond these young kids to enjoy an encyclopedia so he quickly said, "Just kidding, I love the 'Silmarillion'." He smiled again at even more confused looks.

"'A Smile from and Old Friend' written by John Wach? 'The Famous Polka'? 'I palindrome I'?" He said looking around, hoping to make some kind of connection to them with short stories, music, or poetry. 'How about some Dr. Seuss?' he thought and said out loud, "'Oh the places you'll go' and 'Cat in the Hat'?" He said and was relieved to hear some people go 'ahh yeah, that's cool' and some even clapped.

"Yeah 'Places you'll go' is my favorite book, always has been!" He beamed and Jack just nudged him.

Under his breath so only Ed could hear, Jack said, "It's ok that your favorite books are over their heads, stop worrying so much!"

Ed relaxed a little and nodded to him, "Ok um who’s next in line?" Ed said as he eased the microphone back down onto the chair from its propped up position. Ed looked around and saw there was still a few people waiting in line that hadn’t spoken yet but they had no ill will to the brothers for taking longer then the other kids. Excepting of course the one who came before them with the extensive life story/saga.

Ed nodded at Jack again as a way of saying, 'ok let's go' and jumped down from the chair and headed to the right side of the stage, admitting, "That went better then I thought."

When they got to the stairs leading down, they realized that the whole school was clapping. They stopped in the middle of the stairs and looked back up at the stage thinking that someone famous was there. They saw the next kids in line were aiming their clapping hands at them along with the rest of the gym. They just looked at each other and waved a feeble 'thank you' then hastily walked to the rear of the gym as they were getting embarrassed for the applause. They got to a couple of empty rows of seats and parked down in the middle of them. They were not alone for long. Numerous kids moved to sit down close to them and the brothers were politely bombarded with questions, some regarding what they planned on doing later, if they could hang out sometime, other questions just raised more questions.

"Hey fellas, welp, Ed, should we call you the Incredible Bulk?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Because you are huge for a cat but a pretty skinny kid!" A chuckling teen winked, then she faced forward again and pretended not to notice the apparent confusion caused by the new label.

"How can you read when you don't have fingers and thumbs to hold the books?" A young boy said and showed off his webbed stubby fingers at them. "For me it's harder then other people."

"Oh um, well, it does get pretty hard if the book is brand new and wants to close all the time. I have to hold it down with both hands when I’m a cat, and trying to turn pages without clawing up the paper gets annoying sometimes, so I try to do most of my reading when I’m human."

"What's it like being you?" someone was brave enough to ask.

"Umm, I’ve never been anyone else, so I don't know." Ed shrugged, sorry that he couldn't ever give a good answer to that much asked question. "It hasn't been easy, but I hope that it will be easier here in Amystriss. Maybe I will find out what I am so I can tell you what it's like being 'that'." Ed pondered the parameters of this question versus answer, "I suppose I could say it's like you telling me what it is like to be human all of the time instead of a shifter. What is it like to only be in one form?"

Jack gave an encouraging nudge when the others were distracted by that answer.

Another spoke up to lighten the conversation again, "So Eddy, how many books have you read?"

"Oh um, it's 'Ed' or 'Edward'. I uh, don't like the name Eddy, because it reminds me of dangerous water. Don't like eddy’s. So anyway, I have 48 books at home, and I’ve re-read all of them several times. I hope to go to your library downtown. See what all is out there." He smiled.

"I like to listen to music more then read." One teenager said introducing herself as Mikayla to Jack. They noticed that she was wearing a rocker shirt and had at least 2 visible music players in her pockets.

"Um yeah, music is good." Ed said.

Jack chimed in, "I like it really loud but Ed says it's always way too loud."

"Well it is! You don't have super sonic hearing like I do." Ed rotated his ears back and forward at him.

"It's not super sonic and the only way to listen to music is turned up loud, then you hear and _feel_ every note, every rhythmic beat. Oompch oomchi boom boom boom." Jack drummed his invisible sticks on the chairs in front, wiggling his butt to the beat with the sole purpose of embarrassing Ed.

"Right on!" Mikayla said and hi-fived Jack. The two started to chat about their favorite bands and Edward sat up in his seat, trying vainly to see past people's heads at the next speakers on stage.

A girl with a longish sun dress moved over to a seat right next to Ed and leaned over sideways to him. "I'm adopted too." She said sweetly, facing front.

"Really? That's great!" He said and turned, getting excited. He hadn't really explored the outside world, so this was the first time he had met anyone else that was adopted. "I am too! I mean, you know that already. Heh, is it really that obvious?" He showed a paw and laughed nervously. He looked to Jack for a smart-alack remark but he was deep in conversation with the rocker girl. Ed leaned back over to the sweet girl and tried to keep the chat light. No point scaring her off with his dramatic entry into the family.

"They um... uh... got me a year ago in May of 07. We don't really know how old I was at the time so we just have that day as my new birth-day. They say that I now look like a 9 year old when I'm human so that's where that comes from. When I first changed shape they said I looked like I was 6 or 7 years old, so yeah. I guess I had a major growth spurt. Uh how old were you? I mean, are you?"

"I was 5 when I was adopted and now I'm 12. I'm sorry you don't know how old you are. It’d be funny if you were actually older then all of us, huh." She laughed a beautiful enchanting laugh and Edward started to swoon.

She continued on talking just loud enough for Ed to hear, because it was obvious that it was a tender topic. "My mom had to give me up because she works somewhere that's top secret or something. I save all of the letters that she writes me. Mom tells me that she loves me and asks how I am, what I've been up to. All that stuff. She says as soon as she's done working there we can buy a house somewhere. Maybe somewhere that's not so cold half the year. Stupid mountains. She says the place where she works is nice and warm, and that there's even like a desert close by. I'd rather be hot then cold. Once she's done with her job, maybe she can come back.. and... it will be.. will be..." The girl choked up, staring aimlessly at the ceiling. The frilled edge of her long dress were wrung up in a tightly wrinkled bunch as she twisted it over and over in her hands.

Edward could tell she was waiting for a perfect new life to start, once her mom returns, and so he tentatively put his paw over her hand to stop her fretting. She patted it and held onto it as nearly half of his arm disappeared in her cupped hands. He could instantly feel the warmth they gave and nudged her arm with his head.

"It's ok." He said and smiled up at her. She was almost in tears when they suddenly heard something hit their chairs. Edward jerked his paw back instinctively, and half expected an attack.

Mr. R tapped the backs of the chairs with the end of the limbo pole and they all sat up and faced forward again to listen to the teachers. The rocker Mikayla and Jack shushed each other while kicking each other's feet. They became friends later, but it never went anywhere romantically, she already had a boyfriend, much to Jack's disappointment.

The sweet girl wiped her face with her wrists and nudged Edward in the side, "See you around, Ed. By the way, my name's Jennifer, but everyone just calls me Jen." She smiled warmly at him and went back up to her original seat some 4 rows ahead.

"Jen." He said softly and didn't realize he was actually purring.

"Lunch is served to everyone at the same time and place in the building next door. There are 4 periods every day and the classes alternate from one set of 4 to the other set with lunch right in the middle. Study hall block for grades 3 to kindergarten is recess in the gym. And that's everything I think. Is there anything else you can think of Mrs. Columbia?"

"I think you got it." Mrs. Columbia nodded from the middle of the room.

"Mrs. Magenta will now split you all up into your home rooms, when she calls off your name, go to the teacher." The speaker at the front said into the microphone then turned it off and motioned for everyone to stand up and get moving.

"Ed. Ed? Ed!" Jack shouted.

"What?!" Edward said startled. He was hopelessly transfixed, gazing at the lovely and effervescent Jen who was putting her hair up in a ponytail.

"They called your name, you go over there next to the riff raff poster, um I forget what the teachers name is, Robbie? Rocky? Just go over there!"

"Fine, fine! I'm going!" He jumped off his seat and stretched. Making his way over to the poster, he lost sight of it several times weaving in and out of people's feet. Subconsciously following Jen's scent, he realized he was lost and almost in love.

"Edward Johnson?" He heard a booming voice say.

He snapped out of it and quickly followed the voice and sat down front of the other students so he could be seen, saying, "Here."

"Ah." The teacher said and ticked off his name.

 

The gym spun out of existence and the friendly smiling people standing all around him disintegrated into thin air, replaced by a dark cockpit and a sneering face over him that was partially obstructed by a metal muzzle that got larger and larger. Soon he realized it was because it was getting closer to his bleary head.

 

"Wake up Fifteen. We're home."

 


	17. Safe House Flambé

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fire erupts from the safe house and Jack and Henry run into a questionable enemy.

Chapter 17 Safe house flambé

 

 

 

"He's not here. I've checked the safe house and the whole entire area 3 times already." Jack called to his dad.

"Well shit. He went all commando soldier on us in the end." Henry said irritatedly to hide the fact that he was worried about Ed.

"He's long gone by now, it's only been a half hour, but with him, he could be anywhere." Jack said gesturing to the deep undergrowth of the surrounding forest.

"Get in the truck, I'm taking you to the edge of the woods, from there you can find that Jen girl and tell her what's going on. Are you sure she will help us out?"

"Yeah, she's good. Like Ed said, she hadn't ratted us out yet. I don't know anyone else we can trust as much as her, besides Maggie, but she's still on vacation for another week." Jack looked at the ground. "When you checked her house yesterday, you said you didn't see Dan there at all, did you check the neighbor's yard? They have a couple of dogs too, maybe someone put him in their backyard..."

"I'm sorry Jack, he wasn't there, and he wasn't in the other yards either, I checked along our street and called him but he didn't bark an answer back." Henry said putting a hand on his son's head.

"What would they want with him? He's just a dog. Why did they take him?"

"We'll get them back. All of them. I don't know how exactly, but we will." Henry said.

"Ed's the only one that even knows where this ‘Center’ is. We have no leads."

"We do."

Jack faced his dad and swung his arms out. "How the heck do you figure that? He just said what they do, not where they are."

"He mentioned it was hot because there was a desert nearby." Henry bit his thumb and thought about what else Edward remembered. "It was an underground facility, I think he said. Like a big one. With a huge forest surrounding it, Ed mentioned hikers coming by once in awhile but not frequently, and in order for there to be workers there every day and home every night it has to be somewhat close to a town. The Center must have been within easy driving distance from Ana and Timothy's house. I can't see them driving cross country to do a simple test. No, for that test what I would have done is take him out maybe an hour's drive away, two at most, then do the test." Henry said quietly trying to remember the details of what Ed had told him very early that morning. "I need a map." Henry went to grab one from his truck, then strode back inside the safe house and laid it on the kitchen table. "Well shoot. That doesn't really narrow it down much does it." He said spreading the map out on the table and weighing down the corners with various cans of food.

They pointed here and there for vague ideas where it could be as they scanned the whole United States map. Narrowing their search to the surrounding areas of Ana's house.

"Wait! Ed said that he started to fight that guy _before_ they got to the place where they were going to test him. So that means that Center is _even closer_ to the street in front of Ana's house then we'd thought. Here, let's draw a circle around her house about 2 hours driving distance from there, supposing that they wanted to go that far. Then we'll look at all the places with enough forest to hide a huge Center, a town and the beginnings of a desert. He didn't mention them needing to get more gas on the way... so the furthest point being however far a full tank could take 'em." Jack sat there thinking and drumming his fingers to a beat that no one could copy.

"The average car, at least my old cars, used to get about 300 miles on a full tank." Henry bit the tip of his thumb, deep in thought. "Now that I think about it we might want to rule out the desert, I got the impression that it wasn't that close to the Center because of the forest he mentioned. We can look though." Henry said drawing a lopsided circle by hand.

Jack said after a few minutes, "So we are definitely going without the whole town of Amystriss at our side?"

"Yeah. Even if we did get everyone together it would be impossible to move everyone in one direction for very long. They'd all get lost in traffic, probably before we've even left the mountain range. I think passing cars would distract everyone into following other random cars on the road and all that would succeed in doing is stranding the whole town in the 4 corners of the country. Do you remember just trying to keep the family reunion together? We only had 8 cars and we managed to loose your Grandma Goldie on the turnpike. Went a full hour in the opposite direction before we caught up to her and pulled her over." Henry said with a chuckle.

"I see what you mean."

"So." Henry said, mentally going over their other plans they had talked about and ultimately disregarded. Such as repelling off of one of the windmills over the fence, or trying to swim upstream through the sluice gates in the bamboo forest waterways. Or even attempt to break into the security building close to the barn to shut off the electric lines running the length of the fence, and then figuring out how to shut down the cameras and motion sensors in other locations simultaneously.

"So." Jack said exhaustively, looking at the map.

"Let's just ask Jen nicely if she wants to help. Don't put any pressure on her at all. All we need her to do is to drive my truck out of town. First, you both come on over to the tree line where I will be waiting. Then she drives us on over to my job site and I will hitch up my work trailer and stock it with the concessions stand Hank set up down there. He owes me a lot of money over the years so I'm just going to consider us even after that. Then we head on over to Fort Pritchett and Jen will drive the truck out of town and leave it at Arthur Dentt's house."

"Dentt's house?"

"You know... the one that's on top of that hill with the odd windows? Anyways, after Jen leaves we will um 'borrow' a fire truck for its ladder then use it to get over the fence line. I'm pretty sure we've got some ropes to climb down from the end of the ladder. We just need something that is tall enough to get over the electric wire that runs all along the top, bottom, and middle. Easy peasy. Once out, we just head north till we hit the highway then just follow it over to Dentts' house. He won't see us because he hasn't been there in months. Some were saying that he's moved or dead or I don't know. They're planning on building a bypass to the highway right through his property but the plans got all messed up 'cause they don't know if he will sue or if he's even alive to sue. I dunno, kinda got off track there didn't I? Ok so, we get there and make sure Jen gets back into town safely. If she gets caught or whatever by the city cops they'll just take her straight home. If we can't use the truck then I'll just umm ... hot-wire Dentt's car and we can use that."

"You're going to carjack our neighbors? I didn't even know you knew _how to_ hot-wire a car."

"First time for everything. 'Sides this is life and death we're talking about here." They both agreed that now is the perfect time for desperate measures. "Let's set fire to the safe house." Henry said out of the blue.

Jack thought it was to test to see if he was paying attention. "What?"

"I'm serious! We set fire to this safe house. It will burn slowly because of all the safety materials my company built into it. The only things that will actually burn is the wooden furniture inside. The firefighters are already out and about so they will get here fast to put out the fire, and attract everyone here to distract them long enough to get our plan moving." Henry said.

"What about those guys that live down the street? What if the fire spreads?"

"It won't. Trust me. We did tests on the materials we used to build these houses. The fire will be contained and it won't have a chance to get that far before it's put out by the firefighters. Worst case scenario is that the trees out front would be singed a little. This house will be like the campfires I tried to make in Linnell campground up the way, lots of smoke and very little actual fire."

"Let's douse the outside walls, yard and trees with the water hose first to make sure it doesn't spread." Jack said, wondering if it was such a good plan, but knew they didn't have much time to think up any other plans. "I'll make a moat."

"Good idea. You get started on that and I'll stock up the truck with everything from the house, things we might need later."

Jack unwound the hose and drenched the trees, shrubs and all around the house. It took awhile, but he wanted to be thorough. Henry wedged the TV and microwave behind the cab and added pillows and blankets for cushioning. In a large box went the multitudes of spam, tuna, food and bottled water from the house. Then with some help, he tied down a queen mattress over top everything in the back of the truck, covering it all with a blue tarp, he secured it down. Stretching the tarp to its limits, he duct taped the whole lot to the sides of the truck bed, just in case there were some massive potholes along the way.

"Ok Jack, I think that's good." he approved of the rainforest around them.

"Right." He said and threw the hose aside, leaving it turned on to pool in the side yard. No reason to shut it off, it's not like they'll be paying the water bill, and the more water there is, the better.

"Any words of farewell?" Henry gestured to the poor unsuspecting building.

"Light 'er up." Jack shrugged and backed up from the house.

Henry grinned and lit the end of a rag that had been stuffed into a near empty bottle of Hot Cha! whiskey. He grit his teeth and threw it as hard as he could through the living room window. They could hear the bottle smash as they jumped into the truck and pealed out onto the over grown dirt road.

They had just passed the neighboring 'giants' house when Jack spun around to see a newly formed pillar of black smoke. Henry pulled Jack back in through the window just as a branch swept the side of the cab. They both froze when they heard the sirens going off. "Shit! I thought we'd have at least a few minutes! Hang on, Jack!" Henry shouted as they drove into the thick underbrush and deep into the forest, weaving this way and that to avoid the larger trees. Henry killed the engine and waited for the fire truck to pass by, which did so with screaming gusto.

"In one minute everyone else will be here." Jack said looking through the rear view mirror. It was getting dark fast, so he had to focus hard at the scene behind them.

Henry put the truck into reverse and left the way they had came in. There were too many adult trees ahead for them to continue forward. As saplings snapped and twigs scraped the sides of the truck in an eerie symphony of squeals, they hastily backed out from the trees, towards the dirt road. Leaving unseen or heard by all but one.

While they backed up out of the forest, Jack saw something moving in front of the truck. "Hey Dad, stop."

"Hmm? We'll be out in no time."

"No Dad, really, stop the truck. I think I saw something moving out there."

Henry turned off the engine but left the parking lights on. They waited... and waited... A pair of eyes reflected again in the dim light of dusk and shot back and forth between Henry and Jack.

"What ever it is, it's large. It's not Ed... his eyes don't reflect that color. Can you tell what it is?" Jack squinted.

"No, I can't get a good -" he was cut off by the sight of the glowing eyes bolting straight for their truck. They both jerked back in their seats as it pounced onto the hood, windshield, then the roof and its long shape finally leaped clear over the bed of the truck to disappear behind it.

"What the fu -!" Jack exclaimed as he jumped out of the truck.

"No Jack!" Henry called as he too got out.

A young girl thumped her long tail on the ground and glared at Jack as he rounded the back corner of the truck. Jack grabbed the corner of the truck bed to stop in his tracks but was too late, he was instantly attacked as soon as he was in range.

Henry tried to pull off the fierce girl as she bit and clawed at Jack. Growling and hissing, she kicked and swung fists at him, falling just short as Jack quickly backed up away from her. Henry flung her over to the side away from Jack and backed up from her as well. She already landed some harsh blows to Jack's arms and tore the bandage around his neck clear off. Jack held his hands out in front of him, "Whoa whoa! Stop! I don't want to fight you!"

They saw at once that she resembled Edward a lot, in that she was very skinny and agile. She had short spiky hair that was spotted in a long pattern from above her eyebrows to the back of her neck. Not to mention that she also had a tail like Ed and cat eyes that blazed angrily at them. Her black tipped spotted tail whipped back and forth to help her retain her balance, as she lunged again at Jack and attempted to grab at his throat. Henry tried to keep her away from his son but she kept kicking him with claws out, shredding his pant legs, all the while thrashing wildly for Jack. Henry had enough of this crazy thing and began to alternately swing punches and open handed grabs for the insane girl. He missed and missed again, as she ducked and dodged with a sign of detest towards his unsuccessful attempts to stop her. Only getting a hold of Jack's coat and shirt, she tore into them trying to find flesh to claw out. Her plan was to kill the kid first because he was stronger, then interrogate the old man before killing him too.

Jack was able to protect his head from her by holding up his well padded left arm in front of his face. The previous eagle wounds were opening up again, letting some blood seep out from his neck and arm and the scent it offered only made her even more bloodthirsty. Jack's adrenalin was really pumping as he kicked and thrashed about trying to dislodge the insanely strong grip she had on his clothes. He tried to implement the various tricks he used in sparring with Edward, but soon realized that his brother must have been holding back a great deal in their matches.

She backed up momentarily to take a run at him. Knocking him clear to the ground, she punched his wounded arm to distract him. He turned to his side and cradled his throbbing arm while she dug into his legs with her hind claws and grabbed a firm hold of his sore shoulders with her hands, pinning his whole body to the ground. All the while she was grinning at the ease in which she disabled him.

"Get off of me you insane cat-woman wannabe!" Jack yelled up at her.

"Not until you're dead!" The girl screamed. She turned her body to the side, and while doing a diagonal handstand on Jack's shoulders, she kicked Henry square in the chest, knocking him off balance and landing hard onto the ground. Instantly she had her feet back onto Jack's gut which beat the wind out of him. She knelt down, punching him in several key spots and immobilized the upper half of his body. She gave a wicked grin at Jack who laid gasping and bruised underneath her. Her nails dug into his tender skin as he tried to knock her off. Her right hand had a tight hold of his bleeding left arm and had it pinned down next to his head and his right arm was being knelt on. He tried to kick her off but couldn't reach her at all with his knees or feet as they weakly writhed about. She quickly grabbed Jack's hair with her free hand and jerked his head back exposing his eagle wounded neck and shoulders. Opening up her fanged mouth as wide as she could, she went in for the kill.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds. Henry was trying desperately to find something to fend her off with, without hurting her. He knew that she was just like Edward and was most likely brainwashed into becoming a vicious killer like he was intended to be.

Jack looked up at her face inches from his and flashed back to this very same move that Edward had used to kill the eagle. He desperately tried to think of some way to save himself, but was unable to concentrate, let alone, move his body.

Henry cursed at the immovable tarp tied down in the truck and ditched the plan to trap her using it like a net. He spun around, saw what she was about to do, and with one deft move, kicked her clean off of Jack's torso. She tumbled sideways for several yards and sprung to her feet again, outraged that she was interrupted. She then made a lunge for Henry who had his clenched fists raised and ready to use them if she got any closer to Jack or himself. She straightened up, sneered at the two men and just turned and bounded off into the underbrush.

Henry helped Jack to his feet as both of Jack's arms swung uselessly at his sides. His legs splayed out awkwardly to support his upper body that seemed to be completely asleep, temporarily paralyzed. Henry leaned Jack against his side for support.

"What the hell, Dad. Who is that? She’s not like our Ed, not by a long shot." Jack panted trying to stand up straight and see where she went.

They heard a menacing hiss come from their left side, "Oh you call him 'Ed'? Is that the _pet name_ you gave him?!"

"Who are you?" Henry called into the trees.

" _Quiet_!" She warned. Just then 2 cop cars started to scream past on the dirt road headed to the safe house. The sirens faded but were still heard in the background din.

Henry and Jack looked at each other then all around them, backs together waiting for the next onslaught.

They heard her hiss from the right side this time. " _Who am I_? Who do you think _you_ are? How dare you humans kidnap Fifteen! Where is that runt?!"

"Fifteen? You're from the Center?" Jack said aloud to the disembodied voice.

"Yes. Brilliant deduction human. Any other stupid questions? Like how was I able to find you so easily? I followed your scent all the way around this pitiful town, you didn’t even try to hide it! What were you thinking? That kind of stupidity is dangerous, you should be more careful." She slunk out a few steps on hands and toes so they could see each other, but not too close, still being able to dodge any projectiles hurled towards her direction. She suddenly softened a little and took an inquisitive tone. "But you know... you smell a lot like Fifteen. Your blood that is. I did find that a bit interesting." The girl licked her nose as if to wipe the slate clean and get a fresh 'taste' of the scent in the air. She then noticed and savored her red tipped fingers, individually, happy that they succeeded in puncturing his skin. Her eyes almost rolled with delight from the scent as she then licked them clean of blood.

Henry and Jack were sickened by the taste test. "My scent?" Jack asked, stomach churning a little.

"Yes. Not like other human's blood, I should say, a bit sweeter, like Fifteen's. How did you do that?" She asked plainly as if she was compiling notes for a cooking recipe.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about." Jack was momentarily confused, gathering strength to shake his finger at her. "Where is Ed? That’s what I wanna know! What have you done with him?!" He demanded.

" _I_ didn’t do anything... yet. I thought Fifteen was with you, obviously not anymore. He sure loves to run away doesn't he? For now the better question is what happened to your pet mongrel." She taunted quietly.

"Dan?"

"Dan?" She mocked. "He was a pathetic example of the canid race. All dogs are. Just pathetic how they beg, whine, plead. Not like us cats. We never ask for anything, we just take it." She strutted out further from the dark green shadows to face her opponents. The young girl moved easily on all fours and her long tail twitched back and forth. Her face was as cold and menacing as ever, and her claws were digging into the soft earth under them. The clothes she wore were obviously stolen and on closer inspection Jack recognized that she was actually wearing the leather jacket he had discarded at the waterfall the day before. Proving that she had followed them on foot. They could tell she was somewhat taller then Ed, and judging by the sound of her landing on the roof, meant she wasn't as heavy as a girl her size should be, but was still heavier then Ed in human form.

"So you're like Ed? You can change shape too?" Jack asked, hoping to distract her and get some answers from her.

"Of course." She said simply and regarded them with contempt but still wary of the wrench Henry now hoisted up to his shoulder. He made a show of it in hopes to dissuade her from another attack. Jack had an idea on how to deal with her, to keep her talking. He wanted to start off with small simple questions before working up to the life altering one's regarding his family.

"What is your name?" Jack asked, already figuring out the answer from what Edward had said before, about 'the other one'.

"Why do you care?" she snipped.

"I just want to know your name. No reason." He shrugged with a grin.

She bared her teeth then pursed her lips back together. She sat there and her tail thumped the ground. "Nina." she said in a half growl. She was unaccustomed to making small talk with her targets.

"Nina, hi. My name is Jack." His grin getting slightly wider, though half forced.

She spat back, "I know what your name is."

"So Nina, how old are you? Do you know?"

"Of course I know how old I am, do you think I’m stupid?" She rolled her eyes at him but he just rolled his hand at her to give an answer.

"I’m 4 alright? I’m 4 years old. Happy?"

"Yeah, thank you, I guess that means you're also 12? 12 right now as a human?"

"13. Almost 14." She said a bit calmer. A moment passed and her tail stopped thumping the ground. Her head tilted a little to one side and she sat Indian style with her hands firmly on the ground. "How old are you?"

"Me? I’m 15 years old." Jack said as he too started to sit down on the ground. He could feel his body wearing out from trying to stay upright, but wanted it to look like he was choosing to sit down to be more eye to eye with her. Henry remained standing with the wrench ready to go in an instant.

Jack wanted to ask so very many questions but knew enough to hold back accusations as much as possible. At the same time he needed to engage her into thinking about her own life because it must have been hard, like Ed's, but she might not see it that way. At least, not yet. "Do you like it there? At the Center?"

Her eyes flickered over them. She suddenly became very quiet for a long time and had to think about that question. She glanced up at him again and whispered with some emotion sneaking in, "It's my home."

Jack did not know how to follow up on that. Clearly she had a lot to think about and didn’t want to rush her or be too pushy. "The reason I ask, is well, where I lived, I mean my old neighborhood, they didn’t like us after awhile. They were afraid of Ed and it wasn’t easy dealing with people that both hated and feared him just because he was different. I admit I was afraid of him too sometimes, but then I got to know him. He isn't some scary monster at all and I wish I could make him see that. I don’t care what he did, or who he was, all that matters is who he _decides to be_. And I know it could never be evil." He looked over to her and hoped he made a connection. "Did you have to go through something like that?"

She didn’t say a word but just looked at him with a mix of understanding and sympathy. Jack nodded at her, he figured as much from just looking at her. She liked hanging out in the shadows because it meant that other people couldn’t see her, but she could safely watch them. She must be lonely and putting on a strong front to hide that fact. She could have taken the brothers down earlier but chose not to. Jack figured it was because she didn't want to fight them at all, but now she had to, she must be running out of time, or had strict orders from above to take them out immediately.

Jack put a hand to his dad's leg for him to put down the weapon. Henry let it drop to his side, but still had a firm hold of it behind Jack's back, just in case. Jack then smiled at Nina in a very kind way as if they had been friends for years. He patted the ground next to himself for her to sit. She quickly looked behind herself to the safety of the woods and he sensed that he was loosing her. He felt the need to keep up the questions, to keep her with them, talking, and reconsidering her future actions.

Jack was stuck because he couldn’t just demand her to tell him where his mom was because that would make it seem like it was her idea all along. Making her be the villain, ignoring the fact that she fit the profile... she had just gone for his throat only a few minutes ago. "Ok, so uh umm Nina, please, if you can tell me. I know you don’t know where Ed is but can you tell me... where’s Dan?" He asked quietly.

"He’s... he’s.." She started then looked down for a second then back up with an unwavering gaze into his eyes. It was as if she were rebooting to her original protocol. Her body slid back silently onto her knees then toes with her hands still gripping the soil. She readied herself to attack them again, to finish the job, when she suddenly stopped short and growled at them for making her question her loyalties. "Your dog... is as good as dead." She then turned around and started to run away from them at top speed into the thick forest, unhindered at all by the deep brambles of wood and plants.

"Nina!" Jack called out and started to chase after her in a pained hobble.

"Jack, stop!" Henry shouted as he too started to run after them. Another firetruck's sirens could be heard barreling down the dirt road as they both dived into the thicket to hide from the trucks.

"Ow ow ow _shit!_ " Jack said as he flipped over in the brush. "Landed right on my fuckin arm! Right. On. My. Arm!" He shouted, soon cursing up a storm. He clutched his injured left arm that was in desperate need of a new bandage. He jabbed a finger into the woods, "Get her! She’s the only good lead we have to find them!"

Henry started to follow the trail that he thought she had taken into the woods, but realized she must be up in the trees because the clearer ground in the surrounding areas was untouched by even the smallest of animals.

Jack said between groans when Henry returned, "Did you see where she went?"

"No, sorry. She’s gone." He said as he helped Jack to his feet and led him back to the old truck. He turned it back on and looked all around and made sure she was actually gone, half expecting her to come at them again, but this time go right through the windshield instead of over it. As it was, the forest was quiet. That is except for the sirens in the not-far-enough distance, as well as the loud calls heard a few blocks away that the townspeople were making to draw out the missing family. Henry re-wrapped Jack's left arm to hide the dried blood that had seeped through, and checked to see how his neck was healing. The main gashes were more or less healed, but they would leave a scar. Walking around with a bandage around his neck would definitely draw attention.

"Sorry I don't have anything to camouflage the marks, I left my ascot back in the 70's." Henry chortled to hide the fact that he was still on edge about the whole mess. They were amazed at the precision rips and tears that Nina had done in such a brief moment, and counted their blessings for the thick bandages being there.

"Does your arm still hurt?" Henry asked after a few minutes of watching and waiting for the search teams to pass.

"No, just a little but not as much as before. It's fine. My neck is sore but that's to be expected." Jack said angling his neck to test the muscles. He continued to thumb and poke his arm scabs. Henry quietly moved the truck again when a search team got a tad too close for comfort. After a moment of looking out at all of the search parties, Jack said, "I was thinking that I should be the one that goes to get Jen, I know where she lives and I’m already incognito." He ran his fingers through his bright red hair.

"You’re right, even I had a hard time recognizing you yesterday. Just be careful ok?" Henry pulled up in-between several pick-up trucks close to the town's auto shop. "Ok here’s a good spot. I’ll wait here because I’ve got to be able to move the truck if it gets spotted. I’ll give 2 quick honks of the horn if I do move, to let you know where I am."

"Right." Jack got out of the truck and tried to remember the best way to get to Jen’s house. Just before turning a corner, he could clearly hear a group of people calling their names. Some kids ran ahead of the adults right on past Jack without stopping. They even looked straight at him and went on their way. His perfect disguise was a simple change of hair color and his dad's work clothes. No one would recognize him right off the bat so he went with it. Boldly strutting out ahead of the group he scanned this way and that.

"Jack! Ed! Where are you?" Jack said convincingly. He felt bad but also marveled at how easy it was to deceive his neighbors. Making his way to the other side of the group, he noticed that the sun was going down and people headed for their homes. He guessed it was to get flashlights and wished he had enough sense to grab one before leaving the now smoldering safe house. He made his way down street after street till he saw the stone mailboxes that he and Ed had sat next to the night before. Retracing his steps, he found Jen’s house and saw a light on in her house and went around back where Edward had gone.

He saw a window that was cracked open and nudged it open up a little wider.

"Ed?!" Jen practically screamed as she burst open the windows knocking Jack flat on his back on the ground.

"Gah! Oww. What the hell?" Jack said painfully shifting himself up onto his elbows.

"Where’s Ed? Is he here?"

"Shh! He’s not here, but can I come in? We can't talk out here."

"Yeah yeah, come on in." She said as she held out her hand for him to be pulled in through the window.

"Umm... can I use the door?" he got up from the ground and gestured.

"Oh sure, right, sorry!" She said as she went around and flung open the front door before he got around to it.

"Thanks." Jack said as she quickly shut the door behind him.

"So where is he? What happened?"

"He’s... it's a long story I can tell you on the way. Basically if you want to help save Ed you’ve got to come with me right now."

"What? He's in trouble?? Where is he?"

"We think he went to save Mom from the Center."

"Your mom's in trouble?"

"Yeah, they kidnapped her, Ed went to the Center to get her back on his own."

"Center for what?" Jen asked trying to understand.

"I dunno, they just call it ‘The Center’. They do all kinds of top secret stuff there."

"You’re kidding. Is it in Utah?"

Jack looked at her disbelievingly, that state is where they were going to head to first. "How did you know?"

"I think my mom works there! She’s the one that told me a couple of years ago to look out for a guy named Edward and to keep an eye on him for her. I always wondered how she knew him or if it was even the same Ed. Did they both work there?"

"Well they kinda worked there together, I guess. Look we need to go _now_. Everyone is out looking for us so we need you to help get us out of the city."

"Hang on, gimme a minute." She disappeared down the hall and into a cluttered bedroom. Jack could hear stuff being thrown and even something ceramic or glass breaking. She emerged with a half full duffel bag and a box inlaid with jade and other stones.

"Ok let's go." She said and rushed by him to the door.

"What’s that?" He said as he shut the house door behind them.

"My mom wrote to me all the time, this has every letter she sent to me since I was like 5. Different addresses but all from the same state. ‘Cept for one. That’s when she went to NYC on vacation. Postcard."

"Are you sure that it's the same Center? There could be hundred's in that state."

"How many top secret Center's do you know about? If they're top secret we're not supposed to know about them. But since we do, it's more likely the same one. Ok that made more sense in my head." She said as they continued to dodge search parties and moving vehicles on their way to the truck.

"What I mean is my mom said back then to look out for an Edward about his age in Amystriss. I think she knew that he was going to be living here soon after because somehow she led you guys here."

"But, we got the info from some guy I think, it's been a few years. The town council sent us the key in the mail."

"Yeah... my dad works for the town council. He’s probably the one that sent the key. I bet mom sent him a message to invite you guys here. It makes sense!"

"So is your mom the one that uhh... did she help Ed when they were there? He never mentioned her to me."

"I don’t know for sure if she did or didn't. I’m just figuring this all out with you right now." Jen said shrugging, then held him back from walking out between 2 tall buildings that sat close together. "Shh." She said then got down on her hands and knees and peered out from the corner to see if the coast was clear. "Ok, we're good."

"Ed mentioned that he had a feeling someone else was helping him there. He never knew who it was. He could just feel it. He told Dad about a friendly dude named Dustin and his old trainer, a big man named Albert. But this is all recent. We did not have very many clues where he came from until yesterday when all this shit starting going down. We'd get bits and pieces from his past but nothing that you can put down as fact."

"That must be frustrating."

"Well, you know, we just rolled with the punches. He never showed us any reason to doubt his honesty. He didn't know, didn't remember his past but here and there he'd say something odd or do something out of the blue and not even realize he is doing it. Those hints were spread out over years. But yesterday, I guess the dam broke and he remembers everything. And if the Center really is as bad as he says it is, then we've got to get to them fast."

"Do you think my mom is in trouble too?"

"I don’t know." Jack said then patted her on the back. "We’ve got to go."

"So what’s your plan?"

"Well, Dad should have parked the truck down Flammang Drive so we should get there in just a minute. You know how to drive right? You’ve got your permit?"

"Yeah, just last month. But it's only for school and home."

"Umm... if you get caught, just say that your dad asked you to move it... um I dunno. We'll think of something."

"I could say that everyone else is so tied up with the search that he asked me to take this truck into the police station in Constantinople since we don’t have an impound lot here. Just that little dump close to the windmills. They wouldn’t keep any suspects cars there 'cause anyone could just go over and mess with them. Come to think of it, they took Janet’s car to the impound in Constantinople yesterday about an hour after they found it close to the windmills."

"So that’s why Dad didn’t see it on our street. Did the cops say what they found in the car? Anything?"

"No, just some grocery bags with food still in them, her purse was gone too, but the keys were still in the ignition. If she was carjacked they would have taken the car. That’s what they said. I'm sorry she's still missing..."

"Edward said that they took her, but that they wouldn't hurt her at all because she is bait for him. I'm trusting him when he says that she is still ok... I don't think I'd be able to believe otherwise. He went to rescue her on his own, I wish he would have waited for us to help him, but, well, I think he doesn't want to get us in harms way as well." Jack was quiet for a second, "He blames himself for all this... but, it's not like he intended any of it."

Jen figured that they hadn't heard the other bad news yet, "Oh umm... the weirdest thing happened, when they went to check out your house, there was nothing inside. What the hell happened?"

"Umm, that's also a long story... those guys from the school yesterday vaporized the house, that’s what Ed said. I'm still fuzzy on what he meant by that. So, what did it look like?"

"It was empty. I didn’t see it myself but I overheard Dad talking to the cops when they came by my house earlier to question me about you guys going missing. Anyway, there was nothing at all inside the house, no floor, no walls, rooms, the whole inside shell of the house was covered in this dark gray soot and about a foot of ash on the basement slab. They said they never saw anything like it. Even the tub, sink, toilet and other porcelain stuff was gone. If the place had burned there would be some trace of those because it's basically made of rock. Nope, just ash on the basement floor. The first one to open the door barged right in and fell down right away, the next guy almost fell in too. They tried their usual 'bust in the door' thing that you see on TV. They had to get a ladder from one of your neighbors to get him out from the basement. He’s fine, just a sprained ankle."

"Oh." Jack said, trying to imagine the scene and to come to terms with the fact that his house was really razed.

"Oh yeah, just a few hours ago the middle support beam collapsed and outer walls couldn’t hold up the roof so it fell in on itself." She said reluctantly.

"Oh... shit." Jack said and kicked a rock.

"I’m sorry I told you all that, I shouldn’t have."

"No no, it beats wondering about it. Now I don’t have to see for myself. I was hoping Ed was wrong... shit." Jack said under his breath.

"The shed's still there though. But there was a fresh hole dug next to it."

"What?"

"Yeah, the shed's fine so whatever you left in.." Jen started.

"No, no I mean they dug a hole?"

"Yeah Dad said something must have been taken from it, it looked very large, like, whoever dug it was looking for something." They found the blue truck and got inside and shut the doors, all three instinctively slouched down to keep a low profile. "Dad, they have Ed’s tail."

"What?"

"Yeah, Jen says they dug up his tail."

"What? What do you mean his tail?" Jen was horrified that Ed is now mutilated.

"No, it's um, ok, a while back we cut off his tail, he didn’t want one anymore and so we cut it off. But it grew back again 2 days later, after he changed shape twice. No one knew we did that. We didn't think it was a really big deal for everyone to know that he can regenerate limbs, so we just buried it in the backyard next to the shed."

"Not all of it, your mother still talks about finding that chunk in the icebox." Henry eyed Jack and gave a grin.

"Never-mind the fact that it would make him seem even more inhuman."

"Hmm, what would those guys want with it? It's got to be just bones by now right?" Jen asked as she buckled up in the driver's seat, still hunched down even thought it was night now and they might as well have been invisible in the dark.

"I don’t know."

"Well, where to boys?" She said spinning the steering wheel back and forth before turning on the truck.

"Oh right. We should get over to the job site, take as many _main_ roads as possible. There will be more people looking in all of the back roads and alleys. So we will hide in plain sight." Henry said and pointed to the first street they should go down.

"Right. Oh good this is an automatic, I don’t know how to drive a stick."

"Ok Jack, get under that blanket, I’ll get down here, let's go, but watch the speed limit! Don’t want to attract any attention." Henry gave orders and sat on the passenger side floor. Jack was on the seat practically folded in half with his legs behind Jen's back. Eventually she sat on his legs as a joke because he couldn’t do anything about it but stifle a laugh now and again as her bony butt dug into his calves.

A bright shining light came streaming up from the park they were facing as they drove. "Whoa, did you guys see that? It's still up in the air, look look!"

"Oh shit. Dad that’s a flare! Edward is over there!" Jack said excitedly.

"Jen, get to the park!"

"How do you know it's him? Could be anyone sending up a flare" she said.

"Even if _he_ didn’t, the fact that someone sent up a flare means he’s involved because both of us are here."

"Hang on guys, there’s a bunch of cop cars headed there. Shit!" She yelled as people were running in front of her truck headed to the park.

"Move it!" She called out the window at the pedestrians. She weaved in and out but it was apparent that there were simply too many people crossing and running to get anywhere. "Son of a bitch!" She cursed as a pest control van pulled out ahead of her and sped on down the street away from all of the people. She could just make out that it read 'Big Al's Pest Control' on the side and considered ramming her truck into it.

"What? What?!" Henry and Jack asked.

"Some asshole almost hit me, hang on and stay down!" She said as she continued to the park. They eventually reached the parking lot for the park and there was a huge crowd around in a circle. After watching for a few moments she shook her head at them. "He’s not there. If he was they wouldn’t be standing around like that. It looks like there’s just some weird orange arrow pointing down, I don’t know what it is, can't get a good look at it."

"Probably a false alarm." Henry said at length. "We should get going."

Jen backed the truck up and made her way northeast to the cliffs. They arrived at the construction site and found it nearly deserted. There were a few men and women looking around the waterfall and downstream where it went under the fence surrounding Amystriss. "Crap. There goes you guy's plan of leaving by the river."

"Let's hook up the trailer nonetheless and then go from there." Henry said peering over the dashboard at the searchers next to the waterfall.

"You boys really went over the waterfall?" Henry asked.

"Yeah, seems like forever ago." he detailed his daring and heroic deeds in escaping the deadly falls with Edward literally on his back. Jen wondered if he was making it up to impress her.

Henry was impressed. "Hot damn. My boys! You’re my boys!" Henry said and slapped Jack on the back of the head. "Don’t ever do that again!"

Jen could only laugh.

She turned off the headlights and cautiously navigated her way around the site. "Which one is yours? There’s like 6 trailers."

"Mine is the one that’s closest to the cliff face over there. Back in in front of that side." Henry said pointing to the old trailer that barely looked road worthy.

"Ok Mr. Johnson."

"Only my workers call me that and even then it sounds weird hearing it."

Jack scooted over so Henry could get out of the truck.

"Ok umm, Henry." She said and eased it backwards within inches of the front of the trailer hitch with some help from the others on each side.

"Jack, come here, gimme a hand with this. Jen you stay in the truck, if someone comes on by you just take off with the truck ok? I’m going to uphold Ed’s promise to keep you safe. We don't need you being sucked into this mess along with us so take the truck and leave fast if anyone shows up, understand?”

Jen averted her eyes from his concerned face, looking at her duffel bag that she filled in the hopes of going on the road with them.

"Jen."

"Yeah?" She said silently fiddling with the keys.

"Leave us here if anyone comes. That’s an order." Henry said holding onto her wrist firmly but with kindness.

"Ok." She muttered.

He tapped the door of the truck and went to help Jack move the pipes and wood out of the way as quietly as they could in the near pitch black night. Jack went inside the trailer to stow away anything that would fall and break when it started to move. He noticed a bright blinking light on one of the business phones in the trailer. "Hey, Dad?"

"Mmm?"

"Come here, I think you’ve got a message."

"Oh." He said then pointed to some stuff outside Jack could move or collect for the trip. Henry went inside and hit the message button on the device.

"Hello Mr. Johnson! This is Damian from the Center for the Blind in Constantinople. I’m sorry I couldn’t reach you sooner, I tried calling your cell phone, house phone and even the kids' cells and I didn’t get an answer. I hope you get this message, we’ve got your dog here. You can come and pick him up anytime. There will be someone here 24/7 to answer the phones who can let you in. Daniel seems ok, but has been acting a little weird, he hasn’t barked at all since he got here, he was found -" The message cut off after that due to it being too long for the electronic machine.

Henry stared at the machine and hit some buttons, it started to replay the same message. "Jack listen to this, I’m going to go get the food from the concessions stand over there, gonna need these boxes." He said as he picked some up and ushered Jack to hear the message.

"What? Dan’s there? How the heck did he get there?" Jack wondered for a minute. "Well, at least he's safe..." he grinned, one less thing to worry about. He then saw his dad move some full boxes of snacks and pop on over to the trailer. Together they went back to the stand and filled up several more boxes with food supplies and pop.

"He owes me... a lot of money." Henry said as he raided the till as well. "I promised him I wouldn’t say why he owes me so much... so let's say this is justified." He said as he put the box in with the food, and a wad of cash into his pants pockets, handing some to Jack to do likewise. Jack noticed that Henry already had a sizable amount of money in his back pockets and asked him about it.

"Oh, earlier, I withdrew all of the money from the bank we had there just before they closed, something told me that time was running out. I had a hunch that they would freeze the accounts in order to find us. They might consider me as a suspect in Janet’s disappearance, as well as you kids. It wasn’t worth waiting and see what happens. Heh, turns out I was right." He felt around for a money box underneath the mini counter opened it up took out the cash and shut it again wiping off everything they touched with his sleeve. "Alright there Hank, now we're about even." He shook his head and ushered Jack out of the concessions stand.

Jack stared at him with increasing curiosity.

"Reno, he didn’t do anything bad, and he'll be fine. He's insured for theft so we shouldn't leave a note, otherwise he won't be reimbursed."

"Whatever you say, Dad."

"What we have to worry about now is how to get our butts out of town. Let's get the truck and camper out first." Henry said as he covered everything in the trailer with a couple of bedsheets, making the boxes look like a large bed on one side of the camper.

"Ok that looks good. I'll take them to Fort Pritchett's then Jen, you only have to take the truck and camper out of town and drop them off at the house on top of the hill. There should be a mailbox with 'Dentt' scrawled on the side. Pull all the way into the driveway and leave them both there. You can lock them up if you want and leave the keys behind the front driver side wheel so no one sees them. There is a bike tied to the top of the camper that I used to use at the other construction site to get around. It's yours now, you can ride it back into town. If anyone stops you or asks you where you’re going just say that umm... your dad on the town council asked you to take my truck and camper out to Constantinople since all of the officers in town were busy looking for us." Henry said as they got back into the truck, not bothering to hide again because everything around was too dark to tell shapes. The engine roared back into life and they took the same route through the wheat fields to avoid the main road again. The truck stopped just before the Pritchett farm and they all got out.

"Here, for your troubles." Henry pulled out the wad of money to give her some.

"No... I didn’t do this for money." She said softly and shivered. The night air was getting chilly.

"Oh, if they stop you coming back into town, seeing you on a bike instead of the truck you left in, just say you went camping down the way at Linnell park and forgot something at home. Rather then take it all back into town for one little thing you took the bike instead. Then stay home."

"Stay home? What are you guys going to do?"

"We'll think of something." Jack shrugged.

"Wait! Before you go, I want you guys to have these." She started to say, quavering. She pulled out the jade box with the handwritten notes and letters and pulled several letters out of their envelopes. She put the letters back into the box and touched the envelopes fondly then handed them over. "It's not much but it's a start. Try these places when your looking for that Center place. One of them has to get close to it. And... umm..." She started to cry softly, "If you see her... tell my mom I love her." She sobbed, Jack hugged her tightly and Henry rubbed her shoulder. He didn’t understand the whole story but knew Jack would fill him in later.

"I will and I know they'll be fine. Tell you what, we will bring her back with us too, ok?" Jack said bringing her head up to look him in the eyes. "It's ok. It'll be ok, Jen." He hugged her again. Jen searched through the box again, and carefully tore off one picture off of a 4 pack from an old photo booth.

"She sent me this a few years ago, this is what mom looks like. This is my mom." Her tears were falling freely to the ground. "Her name is Ellen. I never knew her last name, I just knew that it was different from mine."

"Ok, shh, it's ok." Jack said rocking her back and forth. Henry went to grab some coats from the trailer and shut the door again. He searched under his seat for the flashlight and remembered that it was handed over to Jack and Ed the night before. He shuffled through the back of the truck and found another one in with the spam which he put in his jacket pockets. He patted Jack on the back to signal the time to leave.

"Ok Jen? Can you do this?" Jack lowered his head to look her in the eyes.

"Yeah. Yes. I can do it." She wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve. The tears still fell but slower.

"Ok what’s the plan, what are you going to do?" Henry asked Jen to repeat.

"I take the truck and trailer out to Dentt’s house, leave it at the end of his long driveway, put the keys behind the front wheel then take your bike..."

"Your bike now." Henry smiled. "It's a good one, the ride back will be a dream."

"Thanks. So um, I ride the bike back into town and go home."

"And if anyone stops you?"

"I tell them that my Dad asked me to take it to Constantinople - if it's before I drop the truck off, if it's after - I tell them I was camping and forgot something at home."

"Good girl. Now better get scootin’ before they notice you're missing." Henry said then added a meaningful "Thank you."

Jen smiled and said "Anything for Eddie," then got back behind the wheel, wiped her face again and eventually composed herself enough to be able to drive down the lane to the entryway to the town.

They waved and wished her luck, "Think she will be ok?"

"Yeah, she’s just like her dad. She can do it." Henry said then threw a coat at Jack. "Come on, let's get going."

"Go where? I don’t think that there’s a free fire truck now, we kinda sent them all to the safe house when we set it on fire, remember?"

"Oh, right."

"What? You didn’t think of that?!" Jack said flabbergasted.

"Well shoot, am I supposed to come up with every plan?"

"You’re the grown up!"

"Lemme let you in on something Jack, grownup's are just kids that don’t have to go to school anymore. We go mad with the awesome power and freedom of our age, but most of us, well, we pretty much stop thinking." Henry said laughing. "If you're disappointed in me you have no idea how established it is in these bones." Henry smiled as he aimed his thumbs inward, "The disappointment starts here!"

"Come on, move it." Jack said shoving him along the pathway.

"That's not nice and proper."

"Make haste asshole!"

Henry slapped him upside the head.

They had been walking away from the construction site for only 10 minutes when they got to the Pritchett's farm.

"I may be old, but I tell you what, this old dog hasn’t stopped scheming yet." Henry pointed at a mound in the earth at one far far edge of the farm's property they were walking through.

"What is that?" Jack said squinting into the dark, as if partially closing the eyes at night could make them see better.

"That, Son, is one of the old mine's entryways. They run all over the place, long long before the fence was put up and this town was founded. We've been excavating the spots down next to the falls 'cause it was easier to access the material we were after. These mines were built looking for a different ore. They must not have found very much of it because they were abandoned soon after they dug them out. Some kind of wild goose chase. They all spread out and intersect. This one, if I remember the maps right, leads more or less north, it hooks onto a different one about 30 yards in and then goes East but the one it intersects with goes straight north for nearly a mile. That’s the one we want. That one will take us almost right to the highway."

"Wow Dad, that’s awesome. So let's get some sledgehammers and have at it."

They went around to the Pritchett's back tool shed and politely broke in and 'borrowed' an ax and a heavy hammer. In their place was a crisp hundred dollar bill. They went back to the mine entryway and swung them at the rotting wood and almost fell right into the tunnel as it gave way without a fuss.

"I guess we didn’t need these. It would have broke if we just leaned on the door." Jack said and was about to toss it aside.

"We might need them later, don’t know if the other end is sealed up."

"So we gotta tote these things for a full mile??" Jack groaned, but still hoisted the heavy tool over his shoulder so the head of the ax rested next to his neck. "At least it only weighs as much as Ed does, this doesn’t hurt much at all."

Henry grunted an agreement after hefting the hammer.

"It'll probably be past midnight when we get out of here, so save your strength, lets take it slow." he said and shown the flashlight ahead of them as they made their way underground that late Wednesday night.

 

 


	18. I'm Not Dead Yet... oh Wait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dustin's brave journey

Chapter 18 I'm not dead yet... oh wait

 

 

 

Dustin had been pacing around in the cell since Frank was escorted out of the long dark hall. The silence went unnoticed as his mind raced about what was going on at that moment, trying to think about what the Center, the Johnson's, Edward, and everyone would do now, was driving him mad. He circled around his cell for the nth time and imagined all the possibilities that could arise if the Center did find Edward in that town. It made him dizzy.

'Urgh this stupid dog brain! I know if I was myself I would have figured this out by now. What happened to _my_ body anyway? I can't believe I didn't wonder about that before. Damn I really am slipping.' He picked up a paw and studied it, the bones under the thin layer of skin and fur, trying to move one digit at a time but found it as hard as moving a single toe at a time on his old human foot. He put it down with distaste.

'Man it sucks being a dog, they can't do anything! Stupid 4 toed feet, no thumbs, just this dew claw bullcrap, a bushy ass tail that does whatever the hell it wants, and black and white, every damn thing is black and white! What I would give to see _one color_. Any color, _puke green_ would be an improvement on this drab slate!'

Dustin had a brief memory of when he used to work late, he would rub his eyes and see a myriad of brilliant colors all morphing and moving into one another in organic circular waves. He closed his eyes. Tighter. Even tighter still. Keeping them closed, he brought up a paw and attempted to rub them, scratching up his face with the nails and rough pads, he was determined to see any color at all.

The thick short fur around his eyes was messed up and now itched with some hairs going against the others. He stopped rubbing his eyes and put the paw down with the lids firmly shut. Loosening the grip, he had them merely shut and not air tight. He looked out.

The circular waves undulated with the animals pulse and distorted and blurred the images before him. They faded away and the picture cleared itself.

But still... black and white.

He bared his teeth in annoyance and tried to bite his way through the bars in the door in frustration. He wanted to voice his anger and tried to growl but hacked and coughed instead. The jowls ached and his teeth clacked but no discernible voice was uttered.

He futilely attempted to force the door open by taking several running leaps at it with his shoulders and chest but it refused to budge and the failure only made him even more depressed. He dropped to the ground on his side, and ignored the pain.

His face irritated him. His side bruised. His gums ached and his head was numb.

He stared aimlessly at the cells opposite his own.

The blankets were disheveled and on the ground. The other cell doors were left open and a sock laid in the hall when Frank was dragged out. Already Dustin missed his cellmate, even though they only spoke for a little while. Frank seemed like an Ok guy, they probably would have been good friends if Frank hadn't lost his mind.

'It was almost more cruel to make him forget that the Center had kept him hostage and mistreated him so badly. Stealing 3 months of his life without a thought of apology. Just make the victims forget that they were victims. Get away with any crime in that missing time. Damn Center. Lesser of two evils though? No memories means no psychological problems? Well, minor brain damage to forget those problems ever existed...' his mind wandered in the stillness.

A rather large spider walked into his cell from one of the holes in the clear plastic walls. He watched it as it started to form a rudimentary web in the corner. He inched towards it and studied it as it went from floor to wall, to wall to floor.

Time passed, but not as much as he thought.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Ok Mrs. Ripleah, you are to take that garbage on up to the truck along with this. I'll send someone to help you with that big one."

"What's in it?"

"Nothing. It's just something they don't need anymore."

"Oh... one of those." She grimaced a bit looking at the still bag.

"One of what? Listen, your job is not to snoop around. It's to move this garbage to the truck and take it to the dump. Is that too much for you?" The man leaned in and stared her down.

"No Sir. I'll have it done before 1:30 am."

"Right, you can use the refrigeration truck, the other ones are in that Amystriss town. 'Sides, if the garbage gets too warm it may start to stink up the other trucks. It'd take weeks for you to air them out."

She nodded and turned to walk away.

"Hey! I'm doing you a damn favor! That shit would really make your stomach churn when it thaws out so say 'thank you.'"

"Thank you, Sir. Yes Sir. Right away, Sir!" She snipped back and barged impatiently out of the double doors. "Asshole." She muttered and hoisted one bag at a time over her shoulders and moved it to the large elevator lobby. 2 of them were too heavy for her to lift so she went to do her other rounds first.

The other lab workers were arriving and leaving, completely ignoring Mrs. Ripleah. She was perfectly fine with being ignored, she hated working for these people but the money was good. There were only a few of them that were decent to her. One of which went out for lunch and hadn't shown up in his office since. She made her rounds and assumed he had a stomach flu or was called off today.

'Yesterday.' she reminded herself. "That's right, it's now just past midnight. Wednesday morning already?" She said looking at her watch.

She went around to the offices down the 3rd hall and gathered up the garbage's from each room and hauled them down to the end of the hallway in a temporary pile so she could take them up to the elevator to join the rest of the junk.

'They didn't have to fire Lee. I know he was a total ego maniac but he at least he could lift his own weight in shit. Now it's me doing all of the clean up work. Bustin' my ass and getting the blame for lazy lab workers. Is it really so hard to clean up after yourselves?' she thought as she saw some of them walking towards her.

"Huh?" She accused aloud to the backs of some Gen-particle physicists who simply looked at her as one of the 'unclean' and went about their business.

'I doubt anyone here even knows my name!' She thought to herself. 'All those years spent in medical school, the blood bank, doctor's assistant. Not to mention having to round up all those DNA samples from all the uniques in Amystriss, basically doing all of their field research grunt work and for what? A fucking mop bucket and garbage detail.'

She tied another fresh bag into the bin of the new psychiatrist's office. She heard murmurs on the other side of the door and leaned up against it carefully.

"Ok Frank, you will awake feeling alert and refreshed. One. Two. Three." A very loud bang was heard a split second later and almost made her fall backwards onto the desk.

She was about to burst through the door, thinking that someone was hurt, but heard friendly voices only a second later.

"Oh hi!" Frank said as if greeting an old friend.

"Hello Mr. North, I'm so glad you had such a great time on our cruise ship to Hawaii. And I am sorry we had to cancel it so soon, but you know, the hurricane season will be upon us. But don't worry, you will get a refund in the mail. One of our drivers will take you on home on our dime."

"Oh well, that sounds great. And don't apologize, I had a lot of fun on the trip." Frank North said happily, if a little confused.

"We will keep in touch till you receive your refund, till then, aloha!"

"Hahaha, aloha to you too!" Frank said as he was led down the other end of the hall and up to the elevator by a different route.

Mrs. Ripleah peeked out of the neighboring office door at the other end of the hall and noticed for the first time that it was decked out in Hawaiian decorations. The two men leading Frank down the hall were wearing shirts with large colorful exotic flowers all over them. At every other step as they walked away from her, she could see the holster of their automatic handguns stuck out from their baggy shorts under their shirts.

'Remind me not to go on the company cruise.' She smirked at the armed men as they turned a corner and left that level. She turned around to find the same psychiatrist standing behind her.

"Oh hello there, I'm sorry, I'm a bit new here and I forgot your name, It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss..." he said, appearing to be nearly affable.

"Ripleah." she said quickly, wanting to get out of there.

"Yes Mrs. Ripleah, you're going into the desert tonight to dump off the waste, right?"

"Oh um yeah, soon as I get it all gathered up."

"Instead of the usual dump site, you should take the garbage from the labs to the other site." He lifted an eyebrow at her as if to ask if she knew what he was talking about.

"The other site?"

"Yes, I can draw you a map if you like, but this is very very important. Once you are done with the map you are to give it straight back to me. Understand?"

"Y- yeah. I mean, Yes Sir."

"Good, I will have someone come by to help you load up your truck."

"Oh, Sir? Dr. Furter said I could use the refrigerated truck out there."

"Oh! Excellent idea! The keys should be in the main room up top. I'll write you a note." He said then used his legal pad with his name embossed on the top. He then drew the directions to the other site deep in the desert. He handed it to her along with a hundred dollar bill. "You should fill up the tank before you leave, it's a long trip." He said handing it over with a wink.

She took the paper and put the money in her jeans pocket. She nodded a 'thank you' then got the hell out of there. The man gave the distinct impression that he could and would do whatever he liked to people's minds if they crossed him. He was recently brought in by Albert and no one dared question why. Some suspected it was because this new guy was more ruthless then his predecessor.

The rest of her rounds went quickly, but she felt something wrong was going on at the Center. Several lab workers were in the room she was cleaning and were complaining that their modified eagles had recently stopped transmitting the live video signal coming in, but they were not allowed to go and retrieve the birds to see what was wrong with the live feed. "Albert said he was going to handle it, can you believe that? We spent years working on the sensurround technology in the bird's eyes and he only has to use them for one day and he breaks them somehow."

"I tell ya, if he wants me to fix the cameras he's gonna have to give me a big ass raise first!" The other one cursed Albert's name and brushed by her.

She wondered what they used the eagles for so late on Tuesday night but figured the malfunction was probably just a glitch in the feed. She hoped nothing bad happened to the birds, wherever they were sent off to.

Gathering up the garbage's to a small area next to the elevator, she waited till it was no longer in use. She loaded it up, took it up top and the guards on duty at the surface were kind enough to help her load up the green refrigerated truck and turn it on, one guard took it around the side of the cabin and filled it up with gas and brought it back to the front again while the other guard and Mrs. Ripleah went back for the heavy bags.

"I'll take these on up." He said and dragged some smaller ones away leaving her with 2 very large bags in the room. She knew she had about 10 minutes before he came back down and looked at the long black bag.

"What the hell is this anyway?" She said kicking one end of it and the object inside moved and settled in an oddly familiar way.

" _No. They didn't_." She said almost gasping. "Oh God. Tell me it isn't a..." She said giving closer examination of the long black bag and saw the zipper.

"No no. No. What the fuck?" She said as she knelt down and gripped the zipper and reluctantly started to pull on it.

The zippers teeth clicked slowly then quicker. 'If there's a chance I could get pulled over I want to know what I'm hauling. I'm not gonna go down for them trying to cover their asses.' She said trying to rationalize her decision to look inside the bag.

She shut her eyes tight and flipped the top over onto itself. She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a second. She slowly and painstakingly brought her gaze down to see what was in the bag.

Or who.

She saw a white shirt, re-buttoned, with an extra button at the top of the shirt.

She saw pale skin.

She saw black curly hair and dry unfocused eyes.

She nearly threw up.

"No no no no _NO NO NOO_! What the fuck! No! What the fuck did they do! Oh my God... ohmygodohmygod." She steadied herself against the wall and stared disbelieving at the body that laid in the black body bag.

"You just went out for lunch! What the fuck happened?! How could they? _No!_ " She yelled and sobbed in the empty room. Then she saw something that she might not have noticed had she never worked in an operating room before. Her trained eyes focused in on it the split second that she glanced at it. Small black permanent marker dashes stained the crown of the head in spots that weren't wiped away. All around the hairline and a few lines poking out from the shirt also gave hints that it wasn't as simple as murder.

"Oh shit, oh shit. I think I know... but why would they?" She said then jolted back to the here and now as she heard the familiar chime of the elevator arriving on the floors heading down to her.

She had only a moment to zip up the bag again and wipe her eyes and face. She straightened out her shirt and bit her tongue firmly to keep from crying hysterically.

"Ok, I'll get this side if you can grab the other." The guard said and picked up a different large bag and she walked over dutifully and hoisted up the other side. Together they took the regular red trash bag for biohazard materials into the elevator and by the time they went back for the long black body bag she was able to calm herself enough to pass for sane.

The elevator ride on up to the surface seemed an eternity. She avoided looking directly at the black bag in fear of bursting into tears again. She regarded it as one would a bag of sticks and logs that someone just happened to put into a long zippered black body bag. 'That's all. Just lawn debris.' she thought to herself, 'An underground lawn? Where were the leaves and tree limbs coming from? _No NO_ , it's just logs in that bag. They ran out of leaf bags and had to use these. _That's all._ '

She bit her lip and stared at the huge doors to the elevator as they opened up on the top floor. Several gears ground to a halt and she saw the fake living room of the cabin directly in front of her as always.

The two guards, dressed as big game hunters, unloaded the elevator and took all of the large bags to the back of the refrigeration truck. She stood there in the elevator, still staring directly ahead of her as they went back inside the cabin facade, distracting her thoughts.

"So is that all Miss. Ripleah?" The nice guard asked.

"Oh um... l-l-let me think..." She stammered. She looked at the elevator numbers on the panel, and the steel placard for the code to operate it. She hit the button to close the doors. As they slid shut she said hurriedly, "I forgot to do something! I'll be back in a little bit!"

The ride back down made her heart beat faster and faster. She had doubt. There were obvious signs of surgery done on that body. 'Why would they do that if they just wanted him dead? This Center is already deep in debt ever since Ed left so there must be some reason for them to spend the extra time and resources on him. If they wanted him dead they could have shot him. But they did something. _They did something._ '

She practically ran down the hallways and looked into every operating room, all were devoid of people and activity, but one had machines scattered about from their regular positions. Rusty brown rags filled a cloth bin in the corner. Two tables with straps and harnesses were set in the center of the room and one of them had a very large puddle of dried blood where the pillow was. The other table had small spatterings of blood, but not enough to hint at that occupant's death. Tools lined a table to the left and on the right side, a rather large, almost home-made machine with computer guts filling it to the top, was dirty from use. Soiled bandages littered the floor and an old collar was rolled up on the tool tray. There were electric wires connecting to ports all over the other side of the machine and crossing over to different machines. One was still on, and displayed a simple green light, signaling its completed task.

Sickened by the sight of the room, she was also overjoyed to see it in that state. There was hope. 'That's what they did!' She ran as fast as she could to the complete opposite side of the Center and stopped just short of entering a room filled with monitors.

 

Dustin laid on his side in his cell. The spider he was watching was perched in the lower left of its newly formed web and Dustin would blow lightly over the web to try to get it to move.

There was an unexpected silence just then. Dustin looked around, the spider ignored the lack of noise. He quickly realized what turned off and sat expectantly upright looking down the hall. A nearly inaudible creak emanated from the heavy door and out came a thin woman in a casual shirt and jeans.

 

Miss. Ripleah looked around at all of the cells, half expecting to find his human body in one of them and had to remind herself again and again that he would not look like he used to. A dog quickly stood up and went to his door, scratching at the bottom and making happy noises at her. She could only see two opened cells in the long huge room. She heard the scratches but didn't immediately see where they were coming from until the dog started to jump up onto the bed to be seen from behind the rows of sinks, beds and walls.

She ran quickly over to the dog's cell and knelt down in front of it. "Dustin! Dustin! Oh man is that you?" She said in a small but excited voice.

The dog nodded enthusiastically at her and tried to smile and talk. She reached her arm in through the bars and cupped his head in her hand. He was so happy to see her that his dog body took over and he licked her hands that she stuck through. He had to concentrate on stopping the long tongue as it was getting embarrassing for him.

"Those assholes! I thought you were dead!" She said tearing up. "I am so so sorry for not knowing what happened to you. I should have looked for you when you went missing from lunch yesterday. I am so stupid, I should have looked... I was supposed to have your back..."

He nudged her hand with his head to keep her from blaming herself, to let her off the hook.

"I'm so sorry Dustin... I saw your body. I didn't know it was you at first, it was in a body bag, I thought it was that Frank guy. But then I saw that it was you and..." she sobbed, "They had ordered me to take it somewhere deep in the desert and dump it."

Dustin took all that information in and hung his head low. He had hoped he could be returned to his own body again but since it was no longer being held in stasis, his body had died. There was no going back. He sighed heavily and looked forlornly up into her eyes.

"They must not have known we're friends." She said quietly crying.

Dustin sat back down heavily and tried to talk to her, but he could only make unrecognizable noises to her ears.

"Why can't you talk? The other forced chimeras could talk, they made sure of it." She said. With his permission she checked out his long muzzle and mouth. She didn't see anything besides a normal dog's mouth. He painstakingly moved his lips into forming words and exhaled as hard as he could but she couldn't understand him clearly. The others had no problems being understood because they still had working vocal cords, not only that, but were given enhanced ones for intelligible human speech as well as a special muscle growth stimulant for their mouths to help form words. Poor Dustin lacked both.

"Did they do something to you? Assholes! It's not bad enough to put your mind in this dog but to take away something else that separates us humans from animals..." She traced her fingers around his neck and felt a long bump. She ran her index finger along the scar tissue, covered by the surrounding thick fur where the old collar had rubbed the original fur out of the way. If he wore a collar now, she wouldn't have detected the scar. She punched the floor and shot a pissed off middle finger at the doors leading to the offices.

"I see what he did. Albert probably thought it was quite clever to take away the communication's officer the ability to communicate. Asshole."

The dog bared his teeth at the office and looked plaintively up at her. She understood what he was trying to say.

"No, there's no one in there, I turned off the security cameras, apparently everyone is up close to the top with Ed's Adoptive mom, umm I think her name is Mrs. Janet... Johnson, in the main hall. Something's happening in there, I don't know what. I was called to be there but Furter asked me to take the stuff to the dump... I didn't know it was really your - I just had to find you, Dustin." She hugged him through the bars of the door. "I thought you were dead." She started to cry again. Between sobs she felt his mouth move. "What?" She asked and leaned in closer, listening hard.

"III'mm nnoot deeaadd yyyeet," he said at length. She hugged him tighter. He smiled at her and perked up his ears at the door again.

"Is there someone out there?" She whispered, crouching low to the ground.

He listened some more and then looked back at her shaking his head 'no'.

"I need to get you out of here. How do I get you out of here?"

Dustin shrugged and then concentrated hard on the problem. His dog side wanted nothing more then to endlessly lick her hands. They tasted like happiness to him. He wished he could slap his dog side to shut it up for one minute while he tried to think of a way to get both out of there.

'Both of me!' He sat up excitedly and tried to speak louder for her to hear him. "Iii knnoww whhatt thheyy wannt too doo too mee. Thhis boddy iss Edwaard'ss doog."

"Edward? Your kid? Dustin, they know he's in Amystriss. Right now they are hunting him down, they sent in all of the guys, including Nina, up there to get him. It's only a matter of time till they find him. The only reason I had you send him there was to keep him hidden. As you know its surrounded by a huge electric fence that puts ours to shame, and not only that but _mountains_! But... that means there's nowhere to hide. They will find him there, I'm so sorry! I should have just kept my mouth shut, they'd have been safer living somewhere else. I'm sorry I had you send them into a big bowl to be scooped up. Oh God! What if they get my daughter Jen too? I told her to keep an eye on Edward, what if they bring her here too?"

Dustin pawed at the door to get her attention and stop her panicking. "Eellenn, iiht's nnoot yoourr fauult, Iii'mm thhe onne thhat seent hiim thhere." He said and pawed at the door again when it looked like she was going to start freaking out again. "Llisten, Ii havve too go too Aamyystriiss annd saave themm. Iiff ii faail theyy willl caatch hiim annd maake himm kiill sommeone too reetrain himm. Ttheyy willl proobably geet soomeonne hee looves oor haates. Wee cann rhescuue themm botth."

"I can help you." Ellen Ripleah said holding the bars. "But we have to move fast." She ran down the hall and hit one of the buttons inside the room with all of the monitors. Dustin's door swung open and he hastily jumped out of the cell before the door changed its mind.

His tail wagged all the way down the hall as he followed her closely. This was the first time he walked in this skin for more then a couple feet at a time so it was tricky to get the legs moving in the right order. They ran towards the stairs leading up to the top. Walking up the stairs was another completely new experience for Dustin and he tripped up a step, then 2, catching the next steps with his shins he had to train himself to use his 'hands' as well as legs to work in synchronicity to get anywhere. Figuring that it was like the hind feet kicked the front feet forward. He still lolloped a little awkwardly, but this method of moving was getting him somewhere so, whatever, long as it works. He soon found that once he stopped paying attention to the precise placement of his feet, they started working in smooth order. He grinned and trotted after Ellen.

They reached the elevator's waiting area. The Center had no stairwells leading up to the ground level because open stairs couldn't be secured as easily as an elevator.

Ellen and Dustin knew there was a camera inside, looking at the faces of the people entering and exiting. Dustin led her around and she opened up the control panel on that opposite side of the elevator shaft wall.

Dustin got up on his hind legs to see inside. "Iii seet thiis upp inn thhe eaarly daays. Umm, Ii cann't ttell colloours annymorre... Goodd thinng youu're thhe onne witth thhe thummbed hannds. Thee greeen wiire and thhee whiite striiped onne. Cuut them."

She located the 2 wires and used her box cutters to cut them. He made a twist motion with his paws and she reconnected them to each other, completing a circuit. The elevator bedroom lowered down to their floor and the doors opened quickly. She shut the panel and got in with Dustin in tow. The doors shut quicker then normal and they shot up to the top floor at double speed, making them both fall to the floor then bounce as it abruptly reached the cabin. The doors quickly slid open and they scrambled out again just as the doors slammed shut behind them. They could hear it plummet to the very bottom floor of the Center followed by a muffled crash heard far below.

Ellen was terrified at nearly being killed by an elevator and looked at Dustin perplexed. Breathless and ticked, she whispered, "What the hell, Dusty?"

"Juusst inn casse." He said smiling. He winked at her and trotted awkwardly towards the back door of the cabin.

"Wait!" She called out in a hushed voice. He stopped and came back, jerking his head to the back door to get her to follow him.

"No, wait! The freezer truck is loaded and ready to go, I'm going to take you out of the perimeter line then give you a ride to Amystriss, or at least as close as possible. If what you say is true, that they will get your Edward to kill someone, they will probably get that one screw-up that was supposed to take him to the testing location 3 years ago. Edward fought with him and was beaten up badly and left for dead. In that fight the best he could do was to take that one guy's eye, you know umm what's his name... Teedas? He does the grounds-keeping now. If there's anyone out there that Ed would want to kill it would be him, Teedas nearly killed him when he was just a kit."

Dustin slowly nodded, it was true. He could tell that Albert had plans for Ed to kill. There was no faster way of retraining him then to go for broke. Edward already knows how to, they saw to that. When he was just 2 years old, they made him think that he had killed a real person. It was actually a remote controlled shell clone that they made to resemble a human. It had a mechanical bone structure with fake human flesh covering it, along with an elaborate system of soft blood filled tubes to simulate the arteries he was trained to sever. After the successful trial mission, Edward refused to 'kill' again.

This time the Center would not take 'no' for an answer. They might want him to kill the one eyed man as well as his old pet dog, and at the same time, his own 'father', Dustin.

Dustin loathed the Center even more for trying to force his son to murder. He could tolerate working there as long as he could ensure Edward's safety but now his location has been narrowed down to one little fenced in town with no hope of escaping. They would eventually find him and bend him to their murderous will. The Center had turned for the worse and Dustin had no hope left that they would ever aspire to their original goals; one of which was to protect the USA from foreign terrorists. The Center had now become the home grown threat, too blind to see how far they've fallen.

Ellen patted the top of Dustin's head and pointed to the cab door to the refrigerated truck. He spat on the ground in front of the cabin and jumped into the cab and crawled over to the passenger's seat and hunched down. She climbed in quickly just as the two guards noticed that she was now ready to go.

"All set?" The nice one asked slapping the rear doors of the truck to make sure they were locked.

"Yeah thank you, full tank right?"

"Yes ma'am." He smiled and saluted her.

She gave a half wave back and took it easy down the long driveway in the dead of night. Once out of the Center's perimeter, the miles seemed to fly by as they both thought about the recent events, and their plans and options for the future.

Dustin noticed a largish paper with some long lines drawn on it and some words. He looked hard at them, trying to figure out what they meant. The lines were a few inches long in one direction then an arrow pointed to an intersecting line in a different direction. An X was at one side with a Z next to one of the lines as well as a W that seemed to be just thrown in the drawing for fun. He gave up trying to figure out what it was and then stared hard at the clock in the cab. He narrowed his eyes and looked at it for at least a full minute. Finally he looked up at Ellen, got up to sit closer to her and asked, "Whhatt tiime iis itt?"

"Oh it's 2:28am." She said simply then asked, "You can't see the clock? Is it the neon that's getting to ya?"

He looked down and hung his head, then he leaned in so he could be heard. "Ii caan't reead thhe nuumbers verry welll." He smiled weakly and pointed at his eyes with a paw. "Doogs caan't reaad." He laid down and rested his head on his paws. Finding it uncomfortable he inched over to her lap and rested his head on her right leg. She stroked his head as she drove on and he slept curled up at her side.

"Dustin." Ellen said gently rousing the dog.

"Mmrrff?" He grunted awake, nearly forgetting where and what he was, he tried to sit upright to get up off of this bed and noticed the thin furry legs that protruded out from his body. A slight shock hit him as he studied the new arms that he could actually move. He shook the paw a little, and sighed despondently at his situation when he remembered what had happened. 'It wasn't a dream... this is real. Shit.' he grumbled. He yawned and Ellen patted his back some more to wake him up. He reluctantly licked the slobber from his lips, and was immediately embarrassed that he had drooled on her leg that he used as a pillow. The dog instinctually tried to lick it up, but he realized that is probably making it worse, so he swallowed his tongue and cocked his head at her in a doggy apology.

Ellen didn't notice his self rediscovery and checked out the rear view mirror to make sure that they were still alone on the dark road. "We're almost at the edge of the desert. In order for your plan to work, I've got to drop off you off here and head to the ghost town right away. After that I need to get back to the Center to keep up the decoy. If I disappear too they will know I was the one that helped you escape, and who knows what would happen then. Just like you worked for the Center to help keep Edward safe, I'm the only one that can save you, my daughter, the Johnson's, Edward and even that one-eyed bastard. But in order to do that I need to stay working there. You understand right? After all, you're the one that gave me the idea."

Dustin wanted her to be free of those bastards but knew that she was telling the truth. They needed someone on the inside. He whined and futilely attempted to hug her, resorting to headbutting to show his respect and affection because she was too petite and skinny to withstand a hug from his big dog body.

She shifted forward in her seat and tugged at her pants belt to undo the buckle. Had Dustin been human, he would have blushed. The feelings for her were still there, but he couldn't do anything with them now. He soon figured what she was doing and sighed. Missed opportunity #42 and counting... He wished he hadn't been such a chicken-shit when he was human and just asked her out years ago. Now it was too late.

She took off just her belt and sat upright again, she measured the belt around the widest part of his dog head, and gave an extra half inch to it. She took out her box cutters and cut off the excess belt leather, and notched a series of new holes in the belt. Buckling it back together, she slipped it on over his head till it rested lightly on his neck. He shook his head and neck to make it a bit more comfortable as it fell naturally into the spot where the previous collar went. The newly closed scar tingled some but was easily ignored.

"I didn't grab the dog's collar there, so this will have to do. It's so some random family doesn't take you in as a pet and the animal control guys won't think you are a stray. I made it big enough for you to slip out of in case someone does put you on a leash if you don't want to be on one." She adjusted it so the buckle was in the front and thought aloud about putting something on it to identify him. Both Dustin and Ellen figured that they couldn't simply put a note saying, 'Take me to Amystriss', because outside of them and the residents of the town, Amystriss does not exist. He would simply have to find his own way there by himself.

"I'm sorry, but as you know, you can't tell anyone who you are. You have to play dumb 'cause if you don't, they'll get scared and probably shoot you or worse. You have to act like a normal dog until you find them, try to go unnoticed, you know?" she said, embarrassed for him. He's still one of the smartest, bravest persons she'd ever known, but now he's forced to grovel subserviently just to get by. She also prayed that his occasional bout of cockiness wouldn't get him killed.

"Well, I guess this is a good spot." she said, looking down the quiet road.

"Thhaank yyouu, Eellleenn. Yoouu werre allwayys goodd tto mee." He said then had a stray thought and had to laugh at it. He turned around in his seat to face the rear of the truck where a body bag laid on the ground with his old corporeal being inside. "Gooddbyye olld bodyy," then turned to Ellen, "Goodd paal," and grinned up at her with a sad smile on his face.

She ruffled up his fur and patted his head. He sighed to himself as she slid off of the high driver's seat onto the sandy ground below. The wind kicked up and sand was blowing everywhere. Dustin followed after her and they stood facing opposite the wind. The truck's engine was just barely heard above the howling wind.

"Amystriss is about 4 hours drive north, 4 and a half if you want to get to the highway in front of the town on the north side, that's where the entryway is. I'm sorry I can't take you closer, but I'm really stretching it as it is." She knelt down so he could hear her better. "I'm sorry I have to take your... body... there... I know you said you wanted it to be used like that but... it's still really creepy ya know?"

He raised an eyebrow and nodded, mouthing 'yeah'. The wind was really howling now and she had to shout over it. "Don't worry! It will work! Just get to Amystriss and get them all to safety!" She hugged him tightly for awhile. Reluctantly she let go and turned to climb back into the cab.

He could hear the gears grinding as she shifted and turned the enormous green refrigerated truck down a very long narrow road, headed for the heart of the desert. The headlights disappeared after a few minutes. He stayed for a few more, trying to see it in the darkness. The quarter moon was unusually bright that morning and soon his eyes adjusted to the dim light and he could feel the road under his paws.

Dustin stared down the road in the direction Ellen had pointed and he felt the wind die down a bit. He could now see the road disappear off into the horizon, partially covered with weeds that had popped up and full broken sections of road from negligence over the years. He put his head down to shoulder the particles flying everywhere and started to walk. Then feeling the ease of the motions and rhythm of the legs working instinctively together, he risked a trot. The wind had died down completely and he felt new air pass over him and realized it was because he was now running effortlessly down the middle of the road. The harsh desert sand eventually gave way to scrabby grass and weeds on both sides of the road. The grass gradually became more dense and he saw large boulders and the odd cliff face here and there, jutting up out of the ground. A hint that the mountains were further down. The odd car and truck passed him, and he had to remind himself to stay on the side of the road then middle to avoid a collision. Over time, the pine trees became abundant which narrowed his periphery but was a nice change of scenery. Owls hooted at him, and some wild animals could be heard shuffling in the woods. He hoped they would pay him no attention at all, he was just passing through.

There was a crash deep in the woods and some indistinct growls. 'That better not be a bear...' he worried, hastening his steps. The night sounds were so clear to him now, he wondered if they were always this noisy. Large night owls that he thought were right next to him sat roosting in the trees hundreds of feet away. 'They don't go after dog's this big, do they? I think I can take them on...' he still didn't want to find out. 'I'd have to use my teeth... disgusting. I've never bitten anyone in my life, I don't plan on starting now, even if I do have better equipment. Maybe I can get away with growling and barking... wait, can't do that either. Urgh.'

He looked around to see how he was doing and guessed that he was running at least 5 times faster then he ever could in his old skin.

'At least there's one good thing about being a dog.' He admitted. The next dozen miles flew by in the cool night air. He ran until his legs started to stiffen and his heart beat so hard it felt as if it was going to jump right out of his chest and keep on going. His tongue lolled out the side of his mouth and he was panted hard. Missing the ability to sweat to cool himself as he ran, he knew he had to pace himself. The dog's body was great but it was also showing some age too.

He slowed down to a trot and felt his joints scream. He then walked for the next mile. Panting hard, he saw a glimmer of light up ahead way down the road and made that his goal; to get there before the sun came up and without having a heart attack first.

15 minutes passed and the light was fairly clearer then before. Another 5 after that and he could see it was an all night gas station. On the way over to it he had a long internal debate on if he should even try to hitch-hike.

The last hundred feet he staggered slowly along the grass just as the sky lightened and the sun dappled only the highest peaks of the mountains ahead. It was so gorgeous to him, even in black and white, he had to stop where he was and watch the sun come up. The warmth of its new rays of light on the day gave him strength and hope.

A very loud car horn went off only a few feet away from him. He scrambled out of the way of a gray box-shaped car with 'Normal People Worry Me' bumper sticker on the back. He cocked his head at it and chuckled as he made his way over to the back of the service station. He sniffed around for a bit, convinced he smelled water. Ignoring the new discovery that he could smell water, he found some in a pool underneath a leaky faucet. He let the dog side take over the complicated motions his tongue had to make, and lapped up the water greedily. All the while his stomach made all kinds of thankful noises at him.

With a full belly he walked around to the east side of the store and laid down in the full morning sunlight to warm himself up. The night had turned cold and even though there was a dew on everything, it wasn't enough to get a good satisfying drink. It only managed to wet his fur and make him shiver. As he laid there he could hear just about everything that happened inside the store. A radio blurbed to itself and some regulars were talking about the latest news, local rumors and government politics.

He listened to customer's conversations as their voices lulled him into a slumber. As an animal he could hear the human voices more clearly then as a man. Humans hear the words and instantly understand their meanings. Animals could hear the same words but it usually takes some time to process them and make sense of the low rumbles and the clucking growls of human speech. Dustin could hear both. Their speech was at first very foreign to him, then if he paid attention, he could tell what they were saying. He noticed that more and more the dog side was starting to show up. He hoped it was only an odd coincidence here and there when the dog's perceptions would line up with his own, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was loosing something.

He shook his head over and over which had the effect of shaking his whole body before long. He rolled around in the dewy grass to clean the fur coat a little from all of the dust and sand that had blown into it. He hated the thought of actually cleaning the coat with his tongue, so undignified, and was glad the desert was far behind him. He had no idea how far he had traveled but knew his journey wouldn't be over at the foot of the closest mountain. He couldn't clearly remember if he'd ever been to Amystriss, so he only had a rough idea where it was, but something else besides Ellen's directions was guiding him there. An instinct he couldn't place, he just knew it was over there, not directly down the highway but it was an easy way to get through the mountain pass's. He would just have to adapt his trail as he went.

For now, he rested.

He was awakened when a little girl starting cooing at him and ruffling up his fur petting him. He groggily rolled over to get a better look at who the hands belonged to and had a slight shock at how big the young girl was to him. Again, he had to remind himself that he was now just a medium-large dog, and looking up at small children would soon have to become normal. He disliked that idea, only because he was accustomed to viewing the world from higher up, a perpetual pedestal. He briefly wondered if it was this basic fact alone that people assumed they were more superior to animals and laughed to himself at thinking how animals taller then people might think that they are superior.

A broad smile greeted the girl as she continued to talk to him in baby talk. She was adorable, and lavished love on him even though she only just found him. He let her play with his front legs, even though she pinched some spots too hard, her laugh was addictive and he wished he could laugh with her. It had been too long since he had fun with his friend's kids, and he found that he missed it.

A thought struck him that he might be getting her into trouble just by being next to her and he got up and unwilling started to walk away. He didn't want to upset her by his departure, so he wanted to say, 'Thanks but I gotta go' but being about 3 years old, she wouldn't understand his odd whispering speech anyway. Dustin smiled and nodded at her and made for the back of the station.

A large, very oversized man cursed at the girl, ordering her to get away from 'that mangy mutt'. Dustin spun around and was upset that he should talk to such an innocent girl like that, never mind being called a mutt, the man was mean to her. Dustin turned to face the man and lowered his head into a half snarl. The man suddenly produced a large, heavy looking stick and as soon as the girl was out of the way, he threw it directly at Dustin. One half of him wanted to catch it in his mouth, but sensibly the other half bolted underneath a nearby semi truck as the crowbar clanged loudly on the pavement. He hid there as the huge man scooped up the girl and stomped over to a rusted car in the far end of the parking lot, cursing the whole way, "Damn filthy mongrel strays! Someone needs to just get out a shotgun and kill them all! Diseased ridden mutts."

Dustin cowered and waited under the semi for awhile until his heart stopped racing. 'Damn that was close.' he panted, realizing fully how close he came to death by being careless. 'Don't go near any kids. I admit, I'd be wary of stray dogs too.'

The old owner of the semi soon walked out of the restaurant with an arm full of snacks and groceries for his trip. He bent over and saw Dustin looking up at him with fear. "What're you doin' under there, Pup?" he smiled.

Dustin cocked his head and could smell the heady aromas coming from the bag. His mouth salivated more then he could swallow and it dripped from the sides. 'Oh sorry, I'm not rabid, I'm just hungry,' he thought as he licked his lips. He felt embarrassed but hunger drove him to beg for something to eat. He hadn't realized that his last meal was when he was a human. That was nearly a day ago. Not to mention that the body that ate that meal still had it undigested in its now frozen stomach. He shuddered at that thought and bowed his head, thinking he was going to throw up.

"Well come on out here, Pup." The trucker said encouragingly.

Dustin slunk out from underneath the semi and slowly walked over to the man. He thought he might take full advantage of the puppy dog eyes but there was food laid in front of him before he could remember what dogs did to make that look.

He ate it greedily, only after he licked his lips did he realize that it was probably a 10 dollar meal from the restaurant inside. He was about to say he was sorry but surprisingly there was another snack laid before him. He looked up and smiled happily with his tongue hanging out.

"Well go on, looks like you haven't eaten for awhile, huh Pup?"

Dustin dove into the box of French fries and licked it clean, scooting it around trying to get the bottom corners with his tongue. He suddenly felt a hand on his neck and a tightening grip around it. He yelped and tried to back away but soon realized that he was now on a rope leash attached to the belt Ellen had used as a collar. He jerked against the leash but stopped when he heard the man say, "It's ok, you’re ok Pup, I'm gonna take you into town. Somebody's probably lookin' for ya."

'Town!' Dustin was elated. 'The only town even close to this truck stop is the one that's next to Amystriss!' Dustin practically danced in front of the trucker, and pulled his way to the driver's side door of the semi. To him the cab looked 3 stories high and he tried to climb up the very small steps. Looking back to see the man trying to pick up the bag of groceries with one hand while holding back the excited dog in the other. Dustin went closer to the man and sat down, impatiently/patiently waiting for him to hurry up and pick up the bag and open the cab door.

The man laughed heartily at Dustin's antics and stowed away the food in the backseat of the cab, shoving aside the worn dirty t-shirts, pillows, DVDs and CDs as well as other debris that Dustin couldn't identify.

He had his front paws up on the lowest step and watched from underneath the man's behind as he made a little bed out of the dirty clothes and a throw blanket.

'It'll be smelly as hell but at least I'm getting a free ride.' Dustin thought as he took some of his last fresh breaths of air outside the aroma dungeon. He knew as a human he could ignore most scents that were around him but his dog nose just had to pick out the identity of every scent. Even sitting still, his mind was dissecting the smells and licking his nose to get them off. But at least he no longer noticed how the mouth tasted because it was now in the background. He found himself adjusting to this faster then he originally thought. Admitting to himself that being a dog is definitely better then being dead.

The trucker backed up out of the cab and hoisted Dustin clear off the ground and put him on the driver's seat. Dustin was scared as hell at being picked up like a stuffed animal and being airborne and then scared of being dropped that he forgot his manners and just sat there wide eyed and panting. The trucker chuckled again then shoved him over to the passenger's side and got in himself. The driver's seat was perfectly molded to the man's derriere and the armrest was worn in the one sweet spot his elbow fit. Dustin looked at his own seat and guessed that this guy had no passenger for years, even thought it was an older semi, this passenger seat was still springy and new.

The semi rumbled to life and the trucker eased it slowly out of the long parking spot and drove around the restaurant and its conjoined gas station and convenience shop. Dustin had a sudden pang of fear at first that the man would fool him and go down some newly formed imaginary road leading him far away from Amystriss so he could never reach it in time. He sighed as he saw the tall pines and craggy boulders get closer and closer as they drove north.

He felt a huge hand on his head and he stiffened underneath it. He allowed the man to mess with his head and neck as he drove down the endless 2 lane road towards the mountains. Dustin had never owned a dog before but knew that people couldn’t help but mess with the animal's heads. Feeling the need to pet and touch them before they were given permission.

'Ha, what if everyone did that to other people. Feeling compelled to pet people's heads all the time. That would be a sight.' Dustin grinned at the trucker's balding head. 'Not much to mess with up there.'

After a couple of hours they passed by the random house here and there and still the man drove. Dustin started to wonder if the trucker had changed his mind and wanted him as a pet. If that were the case, he would have to find a way to escape without harming this kind old trucker.

"Almost there, Pup." The man said and patted Dustin's head some more. "Wish someone had the decency to at least put a name on your collar. A phone number or address. Or even your name for that matter."

Dustin sighed, 'What name would they put on my collar? Dan or Dustin?' He wondered and sat upright and listlessly stuck his nose out of the crack in the window and smelled the air as the semi sped on. Hints of ferns and the odd animal here and there, deer, he suspected, maybe moose. He didn't know what they smelled like, he just knew that it perked his interests. But pine trees were the dominating smell all around. He breathed it all in like he'd never had a breath before. He nudged his nose further out the window and it opened up all the way as his whole head eagerly stuck out. The trucker smiled and encouraged him to have some fun as he rolled down the window for the dog.

Dustin pointed his long nose straight ahead and felt exhilarated as the wind whipped his floppy ears around and moved every individual hair on his head in haphazard waves. His tongue lolled out quite naturally and he swallowed it all up.

And ate a bug.

He gagged for a full minute trying to spit it out. All the while the trucker slapped his spastic back and laughed his ass off. Eventually he spat out the flying beetle and licked his lips to get rid of that acrid taste.

"That's why you keep your mouth shut!" The trucker laughed some more.

Dustin smiled at the man and nodded, again sticking his head out and now bared his _clenched_ teeth at the wind in a goofy grin.

An hour later, the semi slowed down and turned off the highway onto a ramp leading to a fairly populated area. The feet of the mountains cradled the town and wherever there was a flat spot of land, someone had made claim to it. Several gas stations and convenience stores gave way to houses and regular businesses. The semi driver had to frequently stop and wait for faster traffic to go by and for a spot big enough for the semi and trailer to fit on every narrow road.

Dustin watched the trucker put up with all of the crazy drivers and inconsiderate people, dodging recklessly out in front of him as fast as they could just so they wouldn't have to wait 10 seconds for him to pass. While watching him drive, Dustin had a growing respect for truckers in general, their patience had no bounds and kindness unending. Many movies that he'd seen in the past always portrayed them as dumb hicks that are only good for bringing the semi to the main characters to steal and go on bloody rampages in their fights with other characters. Dustin shifted over to the trucker and looked around for anything that had his name on it, so later he could find him and thank him properly for the hospitality and free ride.

He couldn't find anything with words on it, save for the groceries, so he snooped around in the backseat for a short while. He briefly considered talking to this man earlier, but thought better of it. This kind man looked like he might be prone to having heart attacks so Dustin spared him the stress and kept quiet, trying his best to not be a nuisance.

The semi swayed here and there, and made really loud squealing and clanging noises as it pulled into a large parking lot. The trucker unbuckled and shifted around looking for his wallet and hat. Dustin perked up his ears and got back into the passenger side seat looking around the huge windows to see where they were. He soon realized that he had no idea what to look for but had to see anyway. Every building was different but that didn't tell him what they did inside. He recognized some universal human signs and pictures, restaurants with lit up burgers and fries on the front facade, the $ sign for where you can save some money, and so on. He tried to read some signs but his thoughts were interrupted.

"Stay here Pup, I'll be right back soon as I find a place to drop you off." He slapped Dustin's back in a firm but kind way and got out of the cab before Dustin had a chance to sneak by him. After a minute of waiting, Dustin pawed at the door but found the multitudes of levers and buttons confusing. He looked for the one that's most obviously a handle to the door. He found a large one and pulled on it with all his might and rough dexterity but it only managed to unroll the window an inch instead. He sat back and stared at the door, trying to read the worn out words and letters on the different buttons. It was hard enough reading full clear words...

'Tral-- -itch umm what the hell does that mean? Roll down windows, I don't want to jump down from that height, its like 8-9 feet off the ground. The rear view mirrors, left and right. Back windows... No, that's not it. What's this one? -ock u--ock = unlock! Yes!' He punched at it with his paw and heard a muffled clunk inside the door. He then noticed that one of the levers had a large shiny patch on the forward side and figured that it was because the man's hands have rubbed away the black plastic right down to the metal, that's the one he used most often and is most likely the door lever.

He put his right paw gently on the other side of the lever and rested it, making his thick stubby fingers and his palm pad grab a 'hold' of the other side. Then pulled, and simultaneously pushed the door with the top of his head.

'It's open!' He pushed harder with his head and it swung open with a loud creek. He jumped down and was about to run before he was spotted, but stopped short and turned back around. 'I don't want someone breaking into his cab and robbing him, after all he's done for me? That wouldn't be right.'

Dustin awkwardly stood on his hind legs and grabbed the bottom of the door in his teeth and tried to walk forwards to close it, once he was close enough to it, he let go with his teeth and pushed it firmly with his front paws until he heard a click. He got back down on all 4's and looked to see if it really was shut all the way and noticed a half inch gap. 'Oh brother.' He said as he took some paces away to make a running jump at the door and slammed his chest and body against it until it sealed shut. He landed back on his feet and shook his whole body.

'Ok now... where to? Where did that guy go?' He looked around and from his point of view he only saw the bumpers of a few dozen cars. He made his way down the row and walked across a street and down a rather large, full parking lot. It was adjacent to the one the semi was parked in. There he found a really important looking tall building with columns and stone steps leading up. He noticed a word etched in limestone at the top and had to stare at it for a bit to read it.

'P - O - L that's an L? ... I - C - E. Pol ice... police, oh ok. Maybe they can help me.' He trotted up the steps and wandered from glass door to door trying to figure out how to get inside. Some nicely dressed people were walking towards the door so he ducked back and waited for them to go through. He slipped on inside behind them, pretending to be their dog to anyone watching, and went over to the lobby desk that was a clear 3 feet taller then he was. He went around to a row of chairs next to it, jumped up on them and rested his paws on the top of the tall reception desk.

The Australian Shepherd/Husky mutt waited patiently for the receptionist to finish the phone call and turn around to address him. He waited some more. The other- kind-of-husky woman continued to chat facing the other way, about a cute cop that was new to the force and she was going into unnecessary detail on what she would do to get with him.

Dustin cleared his throat at her, but it wasn't loud enough. He tapped on the desk. Taped harder... then he'd had enough waiting patiently and knocked over a glass full of pens at her. That got her attention.

"What the fuck?! There's a fucking dog right on my damn desk! I'ma gonna call you back, Honey." She slammed down the phone and waddled over to Dustin who trembled at the sight of this enormous woman over him. He feared that she was going to crush the life out of him with her sheer mass that bowed over him. Instead she grabbed him roughly by the collar, practically picking him up by it, and walked with him on his front tip toes through a set of double doors leading into the main hall.

"Is anybody missing a mutt?" She yelled into the room.

Phones were ringing and people hustled back and forth in the room. Dustin stared in awe at how much an actual police station acts like the ones he'd seen on TV. He thought the shows were an exaggeration of real life, but here, there really were dozens of cops all running about, making phone calls, moving papers, and talking all at once. He heard snippets of conversations here and there;

"No. We're pretty sure that they haven't left the city yet. Yes, I'm well aware of that, Sir."

"Yeah, 14 and 15 years old, the boys. Yeah. Since yesterday at 3pm from the school."

"No word yet, we're still looking."

"Hey boss!" One guy yelled that entered the room from a side office, "Our guys in Amystriss says they have two unidentified men that were armed to the teeth, wearing black suits in their holding cell, they want to know if we can hold them here."

"Tell them we can, and find out where they want us to send in more officers."

"Right boss."

Dustin wanted to hear more but the secretary hefted him like a heavy suitcase down the aisle, all the while he was being asphyxiated in her tight grip of his collar. There was no way for him to wiggle out with her large fingers on the inside of it.

"So no one is missing a dog?" She yelled again, getting impatient.

"Not that I know of, we don't use Huskies in our force, put him in one of the kennels down in the K-9 unit."

"A'ight."

'Ungh let me go! I can't go to the kennel, I have to get to Amystriss!' He wanted to say but his throat wouldn't work. The woman opened up a door then went down a hall and opened up a rather tall and large kennel and shoved him inside it.

Dustin fell on his side and was up in a flash to dart out again but it was locked from the outside. He tried yelling and barking but ended up gagging and spitting.

'Shit shit shit, how the hell am I gonna get out of here? What's going on out there?' He pawed at the door over at over trying to get a grip on the latch well over his head. Nearly an hour passed with him struggling to get his digits to work and fit through the diamond holes in the chain link. He also tried in vain to climb up and out of the kennel but the gap at the top was simply too narrow for his body.

At first the other dogs ignored him because they were well trained to keep quiet, but gradually felt that his presence could not be tolerated any longer. So one by one they all started barking and growling at him from their own kennels, causing a very loud racket that eventually got someone's attention.

"Quiet down boys! Schtaima! Schtaima!" A fair sized man ordered as he walked down the hall carrying a bag of take-out food wrappers. He spotted Dustin right away.

"Huh. You new?" He said kneeling down in front of Dustin's kennel. The dogs were quiet but the outside offices were still very noisy. Dustin hoped this guy could hear his exhaled whispers.

"Nooo, Iii amm.." He started but soon stopped when the kennel door was swung open. The man checked out his collar around and around and patted his head. He massaged his ears and made the dog's leg kick involuntarily.

"Ah here we go, right there." The man said as he felt a square shaped bump at the base of his right ear.

'What? What's right there??' Dustin worried that the Center had implanted something in his head to track him. A leash was taken down from the wall and Dustin was led out of the kennel, down the hall, and out the door into a black and white police car with a large sign on the sides. Dustin had just enough time to read it as he was led inside the backseat behind the metal mesh separating him from the driver.

'K-9 special unit. Oh this must be his car.' Dustin became aware that his ability to read came and went, sometimes he just had to glance at it to read it and other times it was a painstaking process. He hoped it was just a random occurrence but worried it was a sign of changes to come.

The officer drove down a few streets and stopped out front of a large one story building. He then slipped a spare leash around his neck and tugged gently for the dog to follow him inside the building. Dustin reluctantly walked inside the animal shelter and was taken to the vet down the hall. He was scared that if he struggled, he would just be discarded in one of their pens and forgotten, or worse, put to sleep for being an unruly stray. His breathing became erratic and his heart raced as he smelled the tell-tail signs of death just a bit further down that hall, masked unsuccessfully by some air freshener, but his nose was keener then that, and he whimpered nervously.

"Hey Hondo, what have you got there?" A pretty 30 something woman called from a separate room.

"Hi Jesse, someone found a stray in our main building, it has a vet microchip in its ear so he probably belongs to someone local. Probably just got lost."

Dustin was over-joyed to hear that his body, Dan's body, had been micro-chipped because that meant that he would be taken straight to the Johnson's. He was gently pinned down on a huge cold table that smelled of detergents and bleach. It tingled his nose and made his eyes water. A large hand-held machine that resembled a dust buster was waved over his head. He could hear a high pitched hum emanating from it which hurt his ears but he stayed still so it could get a good reading. They then connected the device to their computer and read off the reference information it provided.

"Ok, looks like this dog is Daniel, 7 years old Australian Shepherd/Husky mix, originally from the Center for the Blind. That's the one right here, just downtown. And now..." Jesse typed in something out of range of Dustin's view. She nodded and continued, "He now belongs to Henry Johnson of Amystriss."

"Henry Johnson?! Holy crap, this is their dog!" Hondo was genuinely surprised.

"What?" She inquired.

"The Johnson's went missing Tuesday night, the whole family. Not all at once though, the 2 boys were harassed by some man during school hours, they left for home after the man had gone and one of them made a phone call to Henry's construction site. Said it was an emergency and to avoid calling home. Pretty soon the mother, Janet, turns up missing from her work at about 7pm last night, then Henry the dad goes missing too at about 9. Earlier their dog was taken to the house by a teacher that was holding it for the boys, he says he didn't see anything at the time out of the ordinary so he drops off the dog in the backyard. A short while later he says he hears someone yelling for the dog. By the time he gets back to the Johnson's house, the street is silent, the dog is missing and no one had seen a thing. Naturally he goes to the Amystriss cops and they get the whole town out there looking for them."

"And this is their dog? Where has he been?"

"I don't know, I found him in the kennels not 15 minutes ago, apparently he'd been there for an hour before I saw him. About 4:10. It's too bad we can't just ask the dog what happened to his family, that would save us a lot of trouble looking for them." The officer ruffled the large floppy ears, then got down to business, checking the fur coat over for any hints as to where he had been. "He has some sand imbedded into his fur, next to his skin. It's not clean like playground sand... " he inspected the dog all over as Dustin stayed quiet and lost in his own thoughts. "Here's some hints that he was in an actual desert, these are some seeds from a tumbleweed. You don't find those plants around here. Other then the sand, this dog had a bath before then, a very thorough one, still smells like some kind of strong cleaning product."

Dustin snorted in agreement, remembering that particular smell from the special disinfectant shampoo that the Center uses when operating on their animals. Designed to sanitize the skin and fur without having to remove the hair.

The officer scratched his own head, and muttered something that only Dustin caught, "Very suspicious." He then continued inspecting all of Dustin's feet. "From the look of those pads I’d say he had quite a long journey. Got some cracks here and there. Small cuts that healed just recently, I’d wrap them up if I had time, but I got to get back to the station to do up his papers. Start a report."

"I'll take care of him, you sure that no one saw how he got there?"

"I'll have to call back, and check out the security cameras. In the mean-time can you have someone take him to that Center for the Blind? I'm hoping they can give us more info on the Johnson's. They've kept a low profile for years, never had so much as a speeding ticket. Heck, it's such a low profile we're havin' a hard time getting any leads on where they could possibly be. Or even where they would go. Pretty much all I know is where their house used to be in that city."

"Used to be?"

"Oh yeah, the whole house fell in on itself, that's what I hear anyway. Right around the time they were officially declared as missing. That Center for the Blind is the best place for their dog until we can find out what happened to the family." The cop said and patted Dustin's head. "I know you've probably got your holding kennels full already."

"Ya know, now that I've got you here, Hondo, I have noticed something strange that has been going on over in that town. I've gotten nearly a dozen identical phone calls last night and today. All asking if we've seen their black striped cats. Apparently all of them went missing from Amystriss. That city is a virtual fortress, nothing bigger then a squirrel can get out of that fence line. Don't you think that's really strange?"

"Yeah, but I don't see how that's connected to this family going AWOL."

"Well I know it's not connected, I just thought if it was, to let y'all know."

"I'll spread the word for them to keep an eye on their pets. I do appreciate the heads up and I'll keep an eye out for any leads on the missing cats." He said and waved as he walked down the hall back to his patrol car. He shook his head at the notion that missing cats would be of any importance to anyone at the station. He himself loved all animals but knew that cats were in no way a top priority. Especially when good, local townspeople mysteriously end up missing.

Dustin was still in a daze and didn't want to believe what he was hearing. 'Too late... I'm already too late.. ' His legs grew weak and he laid down despondently on the table. 'Ed... where are you?'

Jesse wrote up an assessment of the dog's physical and mental health and took a few photos of the paws and his body in case they were needed later as proof of mistreatment or in a later case put against the Johnson's. She felt that the dog wasn't put through this hardship by the family's hand and thought that the dog had run away from whoever kidnapped the family. Figuring that he was trying to return back home on his own.

She gently washed the dried blood from his paws and pulled out some antibacterial cream. She carefully coated his paws with it to cut down on possible infections, then wrapped them up with some gauze and pet his head while checking out his body for other wounds. "Looks like you sure do miss your family, welp, we can at least take you to some place more familiar to you. C'mon... Daniel? Daniel? Come come." The woman said as she tried to gently pull him off of the table. He pulled against her and slipped off the back side of the table and landed on his rump. The woman quickly made her way over to him and helped him to his feet.

"Oh no! I didn't check to see if you could walk! I didn't see him bring you in. Are you ok there, Daniel?" She attempted to pick him up by herself but found him to be too heavy for her to lift.

Dustin got up on his own and hung his head.

"Max come on in here and gimme a hand would ya?"

Silence.

"Max? Dang-it, that's right, he's out getting more food." She tugged lightly on Dustin's collar and led him around the table and affixed a leash to the buckle part of the belt. "Come on puppy." She walked him down a long hall over to a set of double doors where a deafening commotion greeted his ears. Every dog stopped barking and stared at Dustin. They whined at him out of fright and then most started to howl at him.

He grumbled at the lot of them, 'Yeah yeah, I'm a freak. Shut up you stupid dogs.'

"Well isn't that just the weirdest thing..." She said to herself. "Sam? Get over here, you gotta see this."

"What?" He said emerging from a separate room. "Oh, what got into them?"

"I dunno. They all just started howling when we walked in. He's stressing real bad so we can't keep him here for very long... Here's the leash, please take this dog over to the Center for the Blind downtown. Treat him nicely, he's probably been through a lot today. Just showed up at the police station. This is that kidnapped family's dog. Hondo's doing the investigation."

"What? I thought he was just in the dog unit."

"Well, he is and isn't. Anyways, that's not the point. Take this dog back to the Center and tell them it's Henry Johnson's dog. They can scan his microchip there to prove it. Tell them to call the cops if they hear from the Johnson's, or get any news from Amystriss. Or have them call here and I can relay the message."

"Alright alright. Here fat boy." He held out his hands, expecting the dog to run over and greet him.

Dustin sat still with his head hung low, staring  distantly at the ground.

"A lively one eh?" He smirked and dragged Dustin outside and in the back of the all white van they use for hauling strays.

'Damned kennels all smell the same. Piss and fear.' Dustin thought as he involuntarily smelled every kennel in the van all the way to the Center for the Blind. Dustin was left inside the van out front while Sam went to get a handler.

"Hi, I'm Sam from the Humane Society, I've got a dog to drop off." He said politely to the secretary.

"Oh, do you have an appointment with one of our trainers?"

"No ma'am I was just sent here to drop off a dog, heard he was from here actually."

"We don't usually take in strays." She gave a disapproving look at Sam's overall appearance. He had been cleaning kennels that morning, and smelled like it too.

"He's not a stray, listen ma'am, this dog was from here. Do a scan, whatever. I've got shit to do back at work." He was getting angry at the secretary's inability to listen to plain English.

"Hold on, I'll see who's available."

"Just come on over here... no wait that's too complicated for ya, I'll take him around back myself." He snipped and stormed out of the office. He dragged Dustin out of the kennel and brought him around to the side entryway and they made their way to the kennels. Dustin was getting too used to large rooms split up into holding cells. Before the other dogs could howl and bark at him, he bared his teeth at every dog and bristled his fur to make himself look fierce. Letting them know that he doesn't want to fight, but also won't back down from one. The other dogs were more or less unconcerned, and the older ones were puzzled by their old colleagues behavior.

There were many familiar smells that greeted the dog's nose as they passed a couple of the kennels, and he assumed that that was where the dog had been housed in the past. This was indeed the same place Dan was from.

Sam stopped when he heard a surprised but friendly voice, "Oh hi, my name's Damian. How can I help you?" A short man said closing an office door behind him.

"Hi, I'm Hondo from the Humane Society and I've got your dog here, they found him at the cop shop. I was just sent to drop him off, said you guys could scan him here and find out who he belongs to. Anyway I'm off, gotta get some gear together to go find a crap ton of cats from Amystriss."

"Cats?" Damian said raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, don't ask. Later." He said waving as he left the building.

"Well, hi there puppy. Australian Shepherd/Husky mix if I'm not mistaken, big floppy ginger colored ears though. Some other breed snuck in there for those ears. Hmm, why do you look so familiar?" he asked, holding onto Dustin's head and looking him in the eyes. He noticed the white bandages on all of his feet. "Something happen to your poor feet? Poor puppy, welp, C'mon, let's get you fed and scanned so you can rest and relax. There's a good dog. We'll have your family here in no time. Don't you worry none." Damian said amiably, stroking his furred head and neck, while moving slowly so as not to disturb the already stressed dog.

Dustin's spirits lifted a little as the short man led him at his own leisure and pace, guiding the dog loosely down the hall into a neatly designed office. Everything a dog could ever want was strewn about on the floor. Dustin ignored the pro-offered chew toy and sat still, waiting to get the scan over with.

'Come on little man, I don't have all day.' He thought as his ears were again massaged and leg thumped the floor. 'Dang-it, stop it Dan!' He stepped on his hind leg with his front paws and forced his leg to stop thumping like the cartoon rabbit from Bambi.

"Oh you're a serious one you are. Good hard worker. Now let's see here." Damian found a pair of spectacles and waved his own dust buster shaped scanner over the head. He viewed the small digital screen from the lower half of the glasses.

"Well I'll be... welcome back Daniel! You've put on some weight! They haven't been putting you to _too much_ work have they?" He laughed and pet him some more. "You can stay in here, I know you're a good dog. Lay down."

Dustin laid down on impulse and cocked his head. 'Who laid down? Dan or me?'

Damian walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a can of Science Diet dog food and put it in a dish and set it in front of Dustin. Dustin's mouth watered at the scent but he was wary of the grayish slop in the dish.

'Well... it's food... just pretend it's pâté and get it down quick.' He gulped and then reluctantly started to eat the food. Admitting that it tasted way better then he thought it would. 'Man you really get what you pay for.' He finished the bowl and overheard Damian dialing several different phone numbers. Apparently not getting anyone on the other line.

"Well last number I've got is Henry's work phone." He said to the dog. The phone rang a few times and he heard the message service kick on. Cupping the phone, he said to the dog, "The answering machine." He winked and thought quickly about what to say.

"Hello Mr. Johnson! This is Damian from the Center for the Blind in Constantinople. I’m sorry I couldn’t reach you sooner, I tried calling your cell phone, house phone and even the kids' cells and I didn’t get an answer. I hope you get this message, we’ve got your dog here. You can come and..." he walked out of his office and shut the door behind him. Dustin couldn't quite make out the rest behind the sound proof walls, but it sounded like a speech being dictated.

Dustin laid down again and gazed around the room some.

'If the Johnson's get here, how do I tell them who I am? What's going on, what they should do, and everything else. I can't let anyone besides them know I can talk. They're used to having talking animals around. Shouldn't freak out too much. But then what? Do I lead them right back to the Center? Jeez, what was my plan again?' He tried to concentrate hard on the conversation he had with Ellen. All he could remember was that she smelled like peppermint gum.

'Damn. Hopefully I will remember by the time they get here.' He thought as he went over to the window and stared out at the pine tree lined mountain sides beyond the town.

 


	19. Frend or foe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dustin, meet Jack and Henry... they might not kill you... probably.

Chapter 19 Frend or foe

 

 

 

"Let's just go slow ok? I don't know how long the flashlight batteries are going to hold out so I think what we can do is just use it, I dunno, every 20 feet or so. Just enough to show the way is still clear." Henry said as they descended down a slight slope about 200 feet from the entrance into the old mine.

"Sounds good, let's just get the basic lay of the land first. I just want to get a mental map of how high the ceiling is on average and how wide the walls so we don't run into them." Jack said feeling the sides of the walls as they walked.

The inside of the tunnels were surprisingly dry. They had expected dank, wet, earthy walls, but instead they were wooden sides with supports every 10 feet, almost to the inch. The ceiling was low but they could walk upright without hitting their heads, so long as they don't have a skip in their step. With their current moods, that was hardly a concern. They walked in silence for a while as the blinding beam of light hurt their eyes once they were accustomed to the pitch-black darkness. Still, they welcomed it more then finding a sudden drop off one step ahead.

"Careful up here, looks like one of the supports fell over." Henry said as he ushered Jack around a large mound of earth that nearly blocked their path. They both had to crawl on their hands and knees to get underneath the thick, rotting beam.

"Ugh, this is a smell I could have lived without." Jack said wiping his hands on his pants close to his feet.

"I guess some animals made themselves a home in here. We should keep a look out for them."

The way through the tunnels was pretty uneventful, the odd mound of silt that had seeped through the cracks in the walls tripped them up here and there. They made their way through the tunnel as it serpentined underground.

"Do you think it's a trap?" Jack asked, disturbing the silence with a disturbing thought.

"Hmm? Which part?"

"I mean, Dan the Man suddenly turns up in Constantinople? All we got to do is go pick him up? It sounds too easy." Jack said.

"Oh, yeah I can see how that would seem." Henry said thoughtfully.

"Sooo, what do you think?"

"I don't think it's a trap. I may not be best friends with Damian but I do know when someone is trying to hide something from me. You don't become a good manager if you can't. I believe Damian is telling the truth."

"He may just be telling only part of the truth, not all. What if Dan is there... but he's not alone." Jack said.

Henry thought about it for a short while. Their feet splished through a long puddle of water at a low spot along the floor. "I didn't sense anything in his voice on that message of betrayal. After all, he's one of us. He only recently moved from Amystriss, but I just know that the spirit of this town has a way of sticking with you. I know how sappy it sounds." He paused and shown the flashlight for a few seconds as they kept walking. "I know I'll miss this place." He shut off the light again.

"Me too." Jack said, somehow knowing that this would be the last they stepped foot in Amystriss.

"I think we're getting close to the intersection." Henry said after a little while and left the flashlight on for a few minutes, searching the walls for a sudden opening.

"Could it be closed off? So people don't get lost?" Jack asked as he felt along the walls for a loose section.

"I don't think so... push on the left side and I will on the right as we go."

"Ok."

They walked along, sometimes knocking on the wood in search for an echo on the other side, but heard only a clack under their fists, denoting more compacted earth and rock. There was one partially boarded up and sealed room with 'E.L.B.' carved into the wood, but there was nothing left in the room but 4 cinder blocks. Further on down, dirt, instead of rock, was pressed up against the walls the rest of the way. They rounded a corner and came upon the intersection. Their own tunnel appeared to curve sharply to the right as the intersecting one was almost arrow straight to the left.

"I don't suppose you have a compass?"

"What?! We're lost?" Jack cried.

"Hahaha! Had ya going there, huh?" Henry chuckled and slapped Jack's shaking shoulder. "It's this way, watch your step. There's no clean walls or floors till we get close to the surface again."

"How far down do you think we are?"

"No way of telling really. My company wasn't planning on using these particular tunnels for anything. I just had to know where they went so our excavation site didn't make them collapse. Don't worry, they lead almost right to the highway. Just a short jaunt through the woods straight north."

"Any chance of a cave in?" Jack knocked again on the walls.

"Why, you want to test the workmanship of old termite ridden wood?"

"No! No no no... yeah, don't tell me." He hovered his hand over the walls, afraid to knock anymore. "Ignorance is bliss."

"There's truth in your words." Henry said and also avoided even touching the walls. They walked single file down the middle of the floor and left the flashlight on. It wasn't far till they reached the exit.

"I see it's getting lighter up ahead." Henry noted.

"Oh yeah, I thought I was just seeing things."

Henry turned off the flashlight and stood still for a few seconds to readjust his eyes. "Yeah, I think it's amazing that the midnight outside could be so bright." They hastened their steps and had to huff it up the steep slope leading out. Still being very careful not to touch the walls or any kind of support.

"This side is boarded up pretty well." Henry said and let the heavy hammer fall off of his shoulder. Jack did the same with his ax. They rested for a few minutes to catch their breaths. "We might only have one shot at this so as soon as you have a way out, take it. Cuts and bruises heal, but a cave in will kill."

"Nice pep talk, Dad. On three." At once they hoisted the tools over their heads.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!" They shouted as they plowed their way through the door, chopping and slamming the hammer and ax into the old wood. It buckled and an opening appeared. They lunged out as the wood creaked and threatened to break all around them. Dirt spilled out here and there from above as they tumbled out into the bright moonlight from the mine cut out from the hillside. They staggered as the heavy heads of their tools lurched here and there. They both lost their footing in the soft untrodden dirt and fell to their hands and knees.

Jack took a huge lungful of fresh air. "Oh my God! I never thought woods could smell this great!"

"I agree. This. Wow." Henry said as he sat on the dewy grass and then laid down. He hadn't realized that he was sweating so hard in the mines, the light breeze chilled him. They made sure the coast was clear first, reclining on the ground with their tools a few feet away, leaning handle side up on a rock so they wouldn't loose them in the tall foliage. After cleansing their lungs from the stale mine air, replacing it with the freshest of midnight forest breezes, they relaxed on the ground, not wanting to move at all.

Jack gestured to the hammer and ax and said, "So. Should we take these things with us? They kinda served their purpose."

"Well I did just pay a hundred bucks for them. In any store, even an expensive hardware store, with hand built tools by Amish, it still wouldn't cost that much."

"Right. Just gimme a minute." Jack said panting.

"I'm not going anywhere." Henry said and shut off the flashlight and put it inside his jacket pocket. The moon was enough light for them to get through the woods. There was a faint path ahead of them, where the trees were not as tall and plants weren't as thick. Henry rocked his way up to his feet and got up with a symphony of grunts and bones cracking.

"It's _alive_!" Jack said in a dramatic movie voice.

"Shaddup." Henry chuckled, he looked around them for a minute to get his bearings. "The moss on these trees is more or less facing that way, that's north. Come on." Henry said after popping more joints for the finale. Jack leaped to his feet and trotted ahead of his dad, swinging the ax left and right ahead of him and chopping down the odd sapling that dared to stand in his way.

"Slow down there kid, wait for yer old man."

"You're not old, you're only 40."

"I'm older then you."

"No duh! Haha. You're older then dirt."

"Dirt is just worm poop, they do that constantly, so technically anyone that's been born a year ago is already older then dirt. All a matter of perspective."

"You're 40 years worth of worm poop."

"Ah yes, here's some good year. Yup. Good quality year right here." Henry said as he scooped up a fist full of moist dirt and formed it into a ball.

"Ok! Ok! I give up! I already have some shit on my pants from some mystery animal so I don't need any more!" Jack chuckled as he held his free hand up.

"Don't swear!" Henry said and chucked the dirt just past Jack. After a short walk through the thicket they could hear the odd car pass by along the road ahead of them. "Let's not get too close to the road, we don't want to be spotted."

"Right, but it'd be so much easier to walk along the sides."

They made it within 10 feet of the highway and hadn't heard another car pass for awhile, unconsciously listing their walking bodies closer to the street and then alongside it until they reached a lone mailbox.

"Ok, I think this says 'Dentt'." Henry squinted at the faint letters on the box, eventually shining the flashlight on it to make sure. "Yup, 'Dentt'." They quickly turned off the light for fear it would be seen by someone way down the road. They found their truck and camper right where they'd asked Jen to leave it, and after a quick reconnaissance around the place, they were satisfied it wasn't set up as a trap if someone else had gotten to it after Jen. They couldn't shake the idea of people out there, plotting to kidnap them, and it was probably what helped them out so far.

Subconsciously they both knew that because Edward was gone, they were in the clear now. But still they were cautious about every move they would make. They climbed into the truck and wiped off their dirty sweat lined faces with a couple of cleanish rags from behind the seats. Turning the radio down low, they scanned the local stations for news. Nothing but music was heard for nearly an hour as they drove to Constantinople to pick up their dog from the Center for the Blind, before heading south.

Jack stared out his window to the scenery that flew by. They drove with only the parking brake lights on so they could see the road but not be easily seen by others. To avoid suspicion they turned off the lights and pulled over to the side wherever there was a spot big enough for them to go unnoticed by the passing cars.

"Hey Dad, I forgot to check, is the bike still on top?"

"No, she got it off of there ok, I was worried I had put the bike chain lock on it but I guess I used bungee cords, they were sitting on my seat when I got in." He thumbed the backseat where they now laid. "I hope the Amystriss guards didn't give her any trouble. And I hope that she stays home. You know that we might have to... fight. I don't want to subject her to that."

"And what about me? I'm just 15."

"Don't give me that, you're capable of a lot more then you know. If this were civil war times? You'd be old enough to go into battle."

"Oh, didn't think about it that way." Jack said fingering the blade of the ax. "Do you think we can take 'em out with just a hammer and ax?"

Henry paused and gripped the steering wheel a bit. "No" he said after awhile. He sighed and said, "My .22 Ruger is underneath the bed in the camper. And..." He paused again and stared resolutely ahead, down the midnight black road. "I have a few more then that."

"More? But I thought you sold your gun after Ed had that nightmare."

"How did you find out about that?"

"I... was on the stairs." Jack said with a worried tone, "Do you really think he killed someone before?"

"I don't know. But... after that day I did tell your mother that I sold the gun. That was a lie, as you now know. I couldn't sell it because I just knew that we might need it one day. Better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it. Anyone that would make a kid murder someone has no soul. I felt that it was necessary to defend ourselves from such an enemy. So I... bought a few more back then."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm not proud of lying to you guys but as it turns out, I was right." he said, wishing that he wasn't right at all because it meant that danger was imminent.

"So why didn't you get the guns when we were at the construction site earlier?"

"Honestly? I forgot that I had them. You boys were my immediate concern and I had to get you two to safety. I don't see kids in need and immediately start loading up pistols meant to kill."

"So you have pistols? What kinds?"

"What do you mean 'what kinds'? What do you know about guns?"

"Not much, but I'm a fast learner. I can tell from movies how to load some with clips and revolvers. Do you have any automatic machine guns?"

"No! Geez who do you think I am?" Henry reproached.

"Just wondering, can I hold one?" Jack said, a little too eagerly.

"Well, we'll see. Later."

"What kind can I have?"

"The empty one."

"Which one's that? What all do you have back there?"

"Since you're going to see anyways, might as well tell you now." Henry leaned to window side and was uncomfortable with discussing weaponry with his son, especially having the knowledge that very soon his son might have to actually use one in the near future. Henry hated that it had come to arms. Focusing on one task at a time delayed the inevitable weapon's check, but it was still too soon for him to accept.

Henry sighed and resigned himself to instructor, "When handling a gun you always _... always_ point it at the ground. At all times."

"All times, got it."

"I have several models back there and they all have different loading procedures. I can't really tell you as easily as show so after we get the dog from Damian we'll go to some field and I can show you how to handle them."

"Ok." Jack nodded, paying closer attention to this lesson then all the ones from school.

"I gotta tell ya, some of those guns will put out the loudest sound you'll ever hear. Expecting it to be loud may help you out later, so you're better prepared for it. The Black Betty I've got really has a punch to it so you have to hold onto it as tight as you can. The kickback on the Ruger is mild but you still have to learn to counteract it so you can re-fire right away. I have 2 handguns that have clips and we should load both of them and the spare clips so they're ready to go. There's a safety button or latch on all of the guns, use your left hand thumb to flip it off."

Jack sat back and studied his dad's face and tried to memorize all of the information, repeating it under his breath. Henry nodded at him and leaned over next to the window after rolling it down some. The cool night air felt good on his face, he was getting hot from anxiety, and worry about his children's safety.

Henry continued, "Remember, these guys don't deserve our pity. But, from what Edward had said earlier, not all of them are evil. Some only worked there as a regular job, fixing electrical problems and keeping the place running. It's the guys with guns you should watch out for." Henry pointed with his finger at imaginary targets ahead of the car. "If it looks like they're going for a weapon, aim for the biggest part of them you can see. Without regular practice with a gun, it's likely you'll miss. That's ok. I'll be the one going out first. If I fail. If I _fall._ You run. Run for any kind of cover you can find until you can get a clean shot, or better yet, a clean getaway. If you're pinned down, put down your gun and surrender. From what Ed had said, they don't want to hurt civilians. But you've got to make it very clear that you surrender. Best bet is that they... take you captive inside the Center. If so, at least you would have Ed there on the inside. I know he will help you out, if he can."

Henry wiped his face in the dark, Jack couldn't see but knew that his dad was shedding tears. Struggling to maintain a strong front to keep Jack's confidence in him up. He knew that everything his dad had done was for the family, and he would be insane if he didn't feel sorrow for bringing his son into battle with insurmountable odds against them. Still, it was their family and they had to at least try to take down as many enemies as they could to save them. Henry knew that Jack would not let him go in alone, and rather then going off half cocked, he had to at least show him how to cock a gun.

Jack could tell what his dad was thinking, "Don't worry about me, Dad. I can handle anything you can. Just tell me what to do."

Henry pulled Jack's arm, drawing him in and hugged him with his right arm. Jack hugged back and corrected the steering wheel a bit, keeping the truck on the road.

"Let go, I'm driving." Henry sniffed and gave a quick laugh.

"Then drive already, Rambo." Jack punched him in the arm.

They punched each other back and forth till they reached the top of the huge hill they were ascending. Henry rubbed his sore arm when Jack wasn't looking and said, "Ah, we're already here. See that lighter area in the clouds? It's reflecting the light from the city."

"I didn't know it would be so bright for such a small town. I thought it was the same size as Amystriss."

"Oh no, it's actually smaller. Amystriss includes all of the farmlands in it's boarders. Constantinople doesn't have any farms, the fields they do own are all along the highway going south. In their valley they don't have as much room for farms as we do."

They arrived in the city without incident and made their way to the area of town where the Center for the Blind was located. Henry circled the area twice until he was satisfied that there weren't any suspicious vehicles around. Apparently you had to buy a rusted jeep, SUV or truck in order to be a resident. Very few cars were seen and it wasn't a surprise because some of the mountain pass's were brutal in the winter. But now in May the front end plows had been put away, but the years of salted roads and driveways took their toll on the vehicles. Henry parked a block down the road from the Center for the Blind because he didn't want it to be too close or too far away in case of an emergency.

After they got out of the truck, Henry motioned for Jack to get into the camper. They shut the door behind them and crawled over the boxes filled with food from the concessions stand. Awkwardly, Henry stood next to the bed and boxes and lifted the foam mattress and handed Jack 2 guns, both were semi-automatic and nearly identical. Then he handed Jack a couple of 4 inch magazine clips and a fancy looking revolver that Jack recognized as his old Ruger. A box of .22's followed, as Henry let the mattress fall back down. In almost a whisper he told Jack how to load and reload the pistol he held and how to hold a gun with one hand or two, keeping fingers out of the way of the moving parts. He then loaded up the Ruger and put it in his jacket pocket with the semi-automatic tucked into his belt next to his spine. The extra clip was in his other jacket pocket. Jack wanted to give his gun a good cool name, and tried to flip it around by its trigger guard like a pro.

"Jack, don't fiddle with it. The safety is on so you don't shoot yer ass off. Just remember to flick it off when you go to aim. I'm not expecting a fight, so for God's sake, don't pull your pistol out before I do." He patted his son's head. Jack put the spare clip in his jeans pocket and stuffed the gun behind his back.

"Just follow my lead and look natural. We're only here to pick up our dog, not for World War 3."

Jack nodded but still felt adrenaline surging through his veins and sweat dripping down his face. After they peeked out of all the windows, they were confident that they were safe to leave the camper. They had their doubts that its thin walls could provide any kind of protection, but still, better then nothing. Henry trotted down the street and Jack followed after. Feeling the edges of the gun start to slip down his pants he tightened his belt and painfully pinned it in place. He was sure it would leave a permanent mark on his spine. Henry slowed as they crossed the yards and the fair sized parking lot leading up to the main building for the Center for the Blind.

He considered going in the back but that would look suspicious, and found a door with a promising light on overhead. He checked the knob and opened the door cautiously. He peered around at the dim lobby but didn't see anyone around.

"Damian said we could drop by, and that there would be someone here..." Henry muttered.

"There's an office light on down there." Jack pointed down the hall to the left. They tip toed on over to the door and nudged it open with a toe.

"Hello?" Henry ventured a greeting.

"Hmm? I'm sorry I didn't hear you come in!" A nice older lady greeted them inside the room and bid them to sit down on the couch.

"Nice office." Henry said and meant it. It was very well decorated and free of any clutter. In one corner was a dog bed with chew toys strewn about on top of it. Next to the wall sat the couch and end table and Jack noticed that all of the furniture was actually bolted to the floor.

"Bolts?" He asked.

"Oh, yes well, we can't have furniture moving to unexpected spots every time our patrons come around." She smiled warmly at them, further disarming them. Jack realized he was as tense as a viola string and relaxed to a bass cello.

"So what brings you two here?" she addressed Henry, but still smiled at Jack so as not to disrespect him at all.

"Oh um... Damian? Said that you guys had our dog?"

"Oh yes! You must be Henry. They said they found him at the police station downtown. What he was doing there, I have no idea, I only just came back into town."

"Can we see him?"

"Oh yes yes, heavens yes. He's right down the way. Follow me!" Despite her moderate age, she reminded them of some great grandmother on a 50's sitcom, just itching to throw cookies at them.

She led them down the hall. "He has been very quiet since he got here. Hasn't barked once. You guys must have trained with him night and day! I remember way back when he first got here he barked to be let in, let out, get fed, and sometimes he would bark just to bark."

"Actually... we.." Jack started but was stopped with a hand from his dad.

"Yeah we worked on him for awhile." Henry said. He only wanted to get the dog and get out, no more questions then necessary.

"Well, here he is. We let him out after the other dogs because it seems that they are uneasy around him. Can't figure it out." She shook her head at the dogs down the way. "Anyways, here you go son, I see you forgot your leash so you can have this one. No, no, I insist." She smiled and gently tapped Henry's arm. "Let's go down to my office and we can sign some papers and get it sorted. You can let him out now, Sonny."

Jack knelt down to the dog's eye level and watched him. The dog went to the chain linked door and inspected Jack as well. The dog squinted at him and had a look of sudden revelation at him. Sniffing through the chain link, the dog eagerly licked the hand that Jack offered.

"You ok, boy?" Jack said worriedly. He noticed some used white bandages strewn about on the floor that the dog must have chewed off of himself. There were no obvious wounds on him, so they must have healed. Jack thought that Dan wouldn't bark at the others because he was out of his elements but he expected him to bark at his owner in greeting like he always had. Instead, it was a series of faint whines and raspy exhalations. The other dogs yapped and barked loudly for attention all around them.

"You look ok to me. Where have you been?" He asked as he opened up the kennel door and the dog excitedly jumped up at him over and over. All the while whining and apparently chewing on something imaginary.

Jack managed to click the leash onto the collar and noticed that it wasn't Dan's usual collar. He felt around for some kind of machine imbedded into the nice looking collar but found nothing out of the ordinary. Despite it being not the right collar.

"Where the hell did you get this? And why is it so loose?" He tightened it which made the dog cough at him. "Too tight? Here, let's find a happy medium..." Jack loosened it a little and checked to make sure it wouldn't be easily slipped off.

"There we go. Come on, Dan." Jack led the dog down the hall and met up with his dad who was waiting at the front door. Henry opened it for them and they walked casually across the lawn and parking lot, but as soon as they were out of view, they all ran for the truck. Jack put the dog in the camper to allow him enough space to walk around inside it, quickly making sure that the firearms were secure and that nothing could shift, fall or hurt the dog.

"Good boy. Stay!" Jack said as he slammed the camper door quickly and made sure it too was secured shut.

"Is he in?" Henry said, buckling up.

"Yeah. I turned on the little kitchenette light for him to see. It's really messy in there."

"Is he ok?" Henry asked, starting the truck and heading down the street.

"Well, she's right, he hasn't barked once, and he's got a different collar on, but other then that he seems fine. Probably just shaken up." Jack shrugged.

"Different collar?"

"Yeah, just a strap of leather, not the blue nylon one we got him. Ya know, it almost looks like a girl's belt more then a dog collar because it didn’t have the round metal loop for the leash latch. It almost looked like it was handmade into a collar."

"Who would do that?"

"I dunno. Let's just get out of here."

"There was nothing else odd about the belt?"

"Yeah, no. I checked for some wires, machines, bumps, nothing. It's just a normal belt that had some notch holes cut out. It was loose so I tightened it while you guys were signing papers. What were the papers for anyway?"

"Oh just confirming I got the dog back so they have a record of it. And updating his other records of the shots he's had over the years, distemper, rabies, all that. I couldn't very well say what else happened to him while he was missing, because I don't know. Did he seem ok to you? Maybe drugged?"

"Well, we should check him out once we get out of the city." Jack said looking back through the large window in the front of the camper. He could see that the dog had moved both of the curtains aside and was excited about something. Jack watched him jump back and forth on the sides of the camper and could have sworn that the dog was pointing at something. Jack looked around but didn't see anything besides a nice looking black car with two people in it slowly pass them in the fast lane. Jack could just make out that the passenger was sleeping against the door with his face pressed against the window. The passenger looked faintly familiar, but the car passed before he could identify who it was. He shrugged and turned up the radio.

'Frank! Frank! You're alive!' Dustin wanted to shout when he saw the car pass by. He grinned ear to ear at the slobbering sleeping face of his old cell mate.

Dustin tapped on the glass over and over to get Frank's attention but it was useless. Between the whirr of the highway and wind whipping in between the speeding vehicles, a dog's toes on Plexiglas couldn't compete. Still, Dustin was happy that Albert let him go home. He made some rough estimates on how long it took Frank to get here and guessed that it wasn't as easy as just dropping him off in Amystriss. Frank's house had been uninhabited for months, and needed to be restocked with edible food, not to mention Frank's old store, North to Southpaw, had to be taken back from the temporary owner. Dustin knew that Mr. Skullivan had a lot of work left to do, so he might have just drugged Frank while he fixed his lengthy mistake.

Dustin was happy that Skullivan was doing all of that for Frank, after all, he did steal 3 months of Frank's life over a simple case of mistaken identity. The least Skullivan could do was to make the transition from prisoner to store owner as seamless as possible. But of course, if Frank did notice that something was wrong, he could feasibly remember his missing months at the Center, and Skullivan would get reprimanded even further.

Dustin laid down on top of the kitchen table in the front end of the camper, and gently shoved off some maps and papers to the Amystriss construction company that Henry worked for. He rested his head on the narrow window sill and watched as Albert's minion took Frank back to Amystriss. Dustin suddenly shot up from his spot as he realized that they were headed towards Amystriss as well.

'NO! Oh no! It's not that way! There's nothing back there for you guys! The Center is that way!' He thought anxiously, pacing back and forth in the front windows. Eventually he stopped freaking out when he saw that they were only headed down that road for a mile until they got to the road that led south. He sighed audibly and thanked God that the two of them had some idea of where to go. Then laughed to himself when he thought about the only things that are north, east, and west of here were more mountains and Canada. The only real direction they could take to find the Center would be south.

'Ok, calm down there Dusty. They've got to stop for gas sometime, from the Center to Amystriss is at least an 8 hours drive, and that's assuming they go straight there. I highly doubt they know exactly where it is. Who knows when the dad filled up the gas tank last. So when they stop, I should have some kind of way of telling them who I am and what we need to do.' He looked around the camper and found some paper and then hunted around for something to write with. Eventually finding a pencil, he tried in vain to hold it with a paw. Then both front paws while leaning his back against the corner booth for balance. The pencil skittered around the paper wildly as the camper swayed on the road.

'Can't you drive in a straight line?' He shot accusing looks at the truck. 'This isn't gonna work.' He dropped the pencil from his mouth and sniffed around for something else. He found the guns and ammunition with ease as they were without a doubt the strongest scent in the whole camper. He stared at the mattress, fully knowing what laid underneath, and sighed in quiet despair at how far they were willing to go.

'No one should have to be forced to arm their kids with guns.' He smelled it on Jack earlier but didn't make the connection until he found the source of the scent.

He managed to squeeze into every spot in the small camper but couldn't find anything better then the pencil and paper to communicate with. He had a hunch that Henry didn't know Morse code or semaphore. So those were out. He hoped they would be quiet long enough for him to talk to them. He remembered that Jack couldn't hear him at the kennel because of the other guide dogs barking at him.

'Crap. What do I say first? Hi, I'm not really your dog. I just took over his body. And oh yeah, I worked for the same Center that tortured Edward when he was a young kid. Yeah that will go over real nice.' Dustin sighed and got down from the table and pulled out a couple of bags of chips from one of the boxes and munched on them thoughtfully.

After a while down the road, the camper swayed to the far right and caused him to slide off of his seat and to the floor. He then was shifted abruptly forward then back. They had parked somewhere. Dustin got to his feet and tried to look out of the frosted etched window of the door. He could only see a single lamp post off to the side. He could hear both of the truck doors slam shut and he bounded up to the kitchen table again and tried to make out where they were. He saw a very small gas station and its single pump that Henry was at filling up the truck. Jack walked over to the camper door and slowly opened it. He caught Dustin by his collar and slipped him onto the leash.

"Ok here ya go. Time to go poop." Jack said and led him over to a patch of green.

'I don't have to go poop, I have to talk to you!' He whined and tried to get Jack's attention. Bumping into his legs and pawing at his feet.

"Come on Dan, poopies." Jack said and pointed at the base of the lamp post. After a minute, Jack saw his dad go up to the shack to pay for the gas. He himself had to use the restroom before they left. The streets weren't full of cars, but the area was still just a little too noisy.

Jack waited for the dog to do his business, "If you don't go now, you'll have to hold it."

'Urgh, listen to me!' It then dawned on him that he hadn't actually said anything, he tried to tell him telepathically and by body language. 'Dammit Dan, let me talk!'

"Ok fine. Come on." Jack said and pulled on the leash.

"Nnoooohh" Dustin managed to say while pulling with all his might against Jack's tight grip on the leash.

Jack was of course bigger then the dog, so it wasn't really a fair tug of war. He dragged the reluctant dog back to the camper.

"Jjaaaahhkk" Dustin choked out when they got closer to the door.

"Hmm?" Jack said looking down at the dog. "You ok, boy?"

"Jaaackk," He said again, and couldn't think of anything else to add to it that wouldn't freak him out right there at the gas station.

"Ok, that's weird. You won't bark but you can hack a hairball really slowly. Come on, in you go." He said as he picked up the dog and shoved him back into the camper. Jack clicked the door shut and went to use the restroom inside, meeting up with Henry on his way out.

"I'll just be a minute." Jack said. Henry nodded and waited in the truck. He looked in the rear view mirror at the camper and saw his dog wave at him with one paw at a time. Henry was worried that the dog's actions were due to something that the Center did to him. He knew he had no actual proof that the Center took Dan, and that Dan might have simply run away from Maggie's house and was taken into that police station. He watched the dog chew on an imaginary ball at him for a few minutes until he heard the other truck door open.

Once Jack settled down in the truck, they drove down the highway a little bit then made a sudden turn onto a long dirt road out to a junkyard. Dustin knew that this turn was going in the wrong direction and tried desperately to get them to turn back onto the south bound highway. The truck and camper pulled over to the side of a huge barren area down the way, right past a disused junkyard for furniture and car parts. Sand and dirt were all that covered the ground for nearly 5 acres. The truck's headlights remained on, but the engine was off. The high beams illuminated a wide area of the grounds as if it were a stage.

'What the hell are we doing here?' Dustin thought as he watched them talk in the truck.

The conversation wasn't a pleasant one by the looks on their faces. Dustin couldn't see their mouths and had no idea what they were talking about, but the occasional finger pointed in his direction chilled him. The argument escalated and then abruptly ended with the two of them staring at each other. Then Jack apparently gave in, shrugged and nodded his head solemnly.

'Oh shit oh shit...' Dustin could see Henry check his gun to make sure it was loaded.

Dustin jumped down from the kitchen table and frantically looked around for the pencil and paper again. He could hear the two truck doors open then slam shut.

'Shit shit shit! Where did I put them?!' He sniffed around the kitchen area, gave up then jumped over the boxes that elongated the bed. He quickly hid under the covers on the bed at the far end of the camper. The camper door swung open, and Henry popped his head in.

"Come here Dan. C'mon boy." Henry called encouragingly, but sending out a clear note of concern.

'Hell no.' Dustin thought it was rotten of him for trying that deceptive tactic.

"Jack, throw me that rope from the back of the truck." Henry guarded the door.

"Ok. Fine." Jack sounded pissed but obediently rummaged around the truck bed and pulled out a long rope. He passed it to his dad testily. Henry tied a loop around one end and gave Jack the other end.

"When I tie it around him, you pull him all the way out of the camper, ok?"

"Right." Jack said, frowning at the noose.

'Oh just leave me alone guys, I'm only trying to help you!' Dustin thought as he burrowed further under the bed sheets. 'You don't have to kill me over this...'

Henry pulled out box after box of the snack foods to clear a path. He could see the dog's tail from under the covers. "Come here, Dan." He called again and whistled. Dustin laid down, visibly shaking under the blankets and whining pitiably.

"Gotcha!" Henry said, lifting up the corner of the blanket with one hand and slipping the noose around the dog's head with the other. Dustin pulled against the rope and whipped his head around, trying desperately to bite it off of himself.

"Don't fight it Dan, we are not gonna hurt you."

"BBuuulllshhitt!" Dustin gasped.

Henry stood very still and watched as the dog was trying to brace his legs forward against the lower cabinets, the table legs, the kitchen booth and even the outer rim of the door as he was pulled out of the camper. Jack couldn't hear what was going on inside the camper so he kept on pulling.

"What?" Henry's voice quivered.

Dustin toppled onto the ground outside and Jack dragged his struggling and gasping body away from the truck and camper another 20 feet. Jack then tied the end of his rope to a nearby tree and ran around out of reach of the dog, to the front end of the truck.

"He's tied up to that tree over there, Dad." Jack said panting. "Damn, he's stronger then I thought!"

Henry stood inside the camper and stared at the dog who now tried to slink away from them unnoticed.

'Shit shit! What do I do now? They're gonna shoot me because they know something's wrong. They are gonna murder me!' Dustin looked around himself for any kind of cover he could get.

"Jack... did you... hear something?"

"No, why? Did someone follow us down here?" Jack looked down the dusty driveway they had just used. The sky was getting slightly lighter out and they could hear birds waking up and chirping from the trees. Other then that, nothing was amiss with the place itself. "I didn't hear another car or anyone around here."

"No, I mean... he just talked." Henry said climbing out of the camper and pointing at the dog.

"What?" Jack said looking at the cowering figure 30 feet away. "Impossible."

"No really, he... said, 'bullshit'." Henry said holding his gun by his side.

Dustin eyed it warily, quickly dodging glances between the two tall men and the gun that held his leaded fate.

Jack studied the dog thoughtfully, then shook his head at his dad. Henry never let up his gaze from the dog. In the dark he could still tell that the dog was keeping close watch of the gun.

"Ok... I think I can prove it." He whispered to Jack. "Dan has never seen a gun before, as far as we know. But watch." Henry raised it up and aimed it directly at Dustin.

"NNOO plleeease doonn't shooott!" Dustin cried. They could just barely hear him from that distance. They saw the terror in his soulful brown eyes and the immediate change in his disposition as he groveled away from the them. Tail tucked way under himself and ears flat back, begging. He was practically crawling backwards until he reached the literal end of his rope. He tugged at it, still watching the two in utter fear.

After a long, tense minute, Jack inched closer to the dog. Henry stood very still and pulled the hammer back on the revolver, convinced that something terrible was wrong with their dog. 'Dan must have some kind of dangerous illness like rabies, and has to be put down for our safety. If nothing else, he shouldn't have recognized a gun as a weapon, which means, something even worse then rabies.' Henry grimaced.

"Hang on Dad, put the gun down. I gotta check something out." Jack said and put his hands out and ahead of him to show the frightened dog that he wasn't going to attack, and had no hidden weapon. Henry lowered the gun but kept a firm grip on it.

Dustin sat upright again, tail tucked between his legs. He whined and stayed perfectly still and scared shitless. He did not want to hurt this boy, but worried that his own self preservation would suddenly kick in, he might attack the kid on instinct. Dustin's heart was racing and he tried to stay in control of this quivering body. He made up his mind and decided to hold back any kind of retribution on the boy, even if these men kill him. Still, he was holding out some hope that it won't come to that.

"Hold still Dan, I'm not going to hurt you." Jack said very slowly and walked cautiously over to the dog. Ready to run away if the dog should choose to chase him. Dustin felt that in order to show he was safe to be around, he should also approach the boy, but very slowly and non-threatening. He forced himself to wag the tail even though it kept returning under his bent hind legs.

Jack knelt down directly in front of the dog, looking him eye to eye. Dustin ducked his head down in fear of being struck. Jack brought his hands in very slowly and took off the leather belt-collar around the dog's neck, but left the rope noose on him. He threw the collar behind him over to his dad, but kept staring straight at the dog's eyes. He held the dog's head in his hands and looked deeper into the eyes.

Dustin looked away, as he felt he was being challenged for dominance. The dog's body language tells him as much.

"Look at me." Jack said simply.

Dustin stared at Jack's left eye, then right, allowing Jack to restrain his head in his long hands. Jack moved one hand over and held open the dog's left eye wider and leaned in even closer and stared at it for a bit. Dustin was confused, but let him do whatever he wanted, apparently Jack had a plan to see what was going on. 'Is this something he did with Dan? I don't get it.'

"Dad, bring the flashlight over here. I can't see very well in the dark."

"What are you looking for?" Henry said and held out the flashlight.

"Aim it at his eye here. I'll know in a second." As Henry did so, Dustin's eyes hurt with the blinding light to his left. His pupils contracted and he whined a bit. Jack then checked the right eye with the flashlight moving in even closer.

Jack sighed and said fairly relieved, "I don't see it."

"See what?" Henry asked as Jack let go of the dog's head but still secured him with the rope.

"The eagles had camera's in their eyes, they didn't do that to Dan." Jack said and faced Dustin again. "You can talk, boy? I thought I heard you earlier. Or am I just crazy." Jack chuckled, clearly not expecting an answer.

"Yyou'rre nnoott crraazy." Dustin said softly. He tried to grin at them in a friendly way, but they saw the teeth in the glinting flashlight. The flashlight clattered to the ground as Jack and Henry shot up to their feet and stumbled away from the dog.

As frightened and confused as Dustin had been, the others were now even more so, "That's... unbelievable... what the hell did they do to you, Dan?" Jack asked sympathetically.

"I'mm..." Dustin paused then reluctantly said, "noot Daann."

It took them a moment to understand what was going on, but when they did, Henry raised his gun again and aimed it directly at the dog. His hands shook and the gun rattled. "What the..? Who the hell are you?! What are you? You're with those bastards aren't you?!" Henry yelled, automatically lining up the gun sights to Dustin's head and then to his heart.

Jack reacted more rationally to the confession. "Dad! Dad stop! He didn't have to tell us that... he could have just stayed quiet, pretended to be Dan. He might be honest."

"Bullshit! He's just trying to trick us!" they argued back and forth for several minutes.

Dustin backed away from the gun and couldn't be heard above their shouting. The flashlight illuminated some of his paw prints in the dirt and sand and he quickly wrote out the word, 'frend' and pointed to it. He frantically padded the ground to make a loud enough noise for them to notice it. They both pointed accusing fingers at the dog, trying to prove their own points. Their hands fell and they stared at him.

"What? It can write? Who the hell are you? What did you do to Dan?" Henry shook the gun at him again.

"Are you supposed to be a decoy from the Center?" Jack demanded. "Throw us off track? Or set us up for a trap?"

"Where's Ed? My wife, Janet? What did you bastards do with them?" Henry ordered him to answer.

Dustin waved his paws and tried to talk loud enough but their tempers wouldn't let them quiet down to hear. Finally Jack stopped yelling and held back his dad's gun. He grit his teeth and tried to figure out what to do with the dog now.

Jack reasoned coldly, "He's not the only lead we have, but he might be able to tell us what we need to know about them. We can shoot him after we get the information we need, or shoot him if he's lying. We won't know anything until we _let him speak_."

"Ddoon't shooot mee att alll!! Ii'm herree too hellp youu! Ttruust me! Youu hhaave too truust mee! II waant too heelp youu!" He said nervously.

"Help us? Help us how? Just tell us where they are!"

It was getting hard for Dustin to stay in control of the dog's body. Dan wanted to run towards his masters and protect them from whatever unseen enemy was making them so angry. Dan couldn't quite understand that it was himself that was making them nervous. For now, Dustin forgot about Janet because he was incredibly worried about his son. The whole point of his trip to Amystriss was to rescue his son from the troops sent to find him. "EEdwarrd... Ii donn't knoww, youu saaw hiimm lasst." Dustin said. He couldn't tell what happened to Edward because time and events were getting harder to straighten out in his head. A brief memory flashed in front of him of the dog being taken down by a tranquilizer dart, and seeing Edward run to his and Jack's rescue. At that time, Dan turned his head and saw Edward knock the man with the gun out and then the next thing Dan remembered was licking Jack's injured hand as he left him in that strange house.

"Waaiitt... wwe, I meaan, youu annd Daan werre inn thhe street... itt gott dark. Ii saiid goodbyee too youu... I meaan Dann saiid goodbye..."

"What? You were there on our street?"

"Noo... Daan wass." Dustin said staring at the ground. He could remember seeing Edward. He seemed so tall, but knew that was only because Dan was laying down and looking up at him. A pang of sadness hit him and he laid down miserably onto the filthy ground. "Whherre iss Eddwarrd?" Dustin whimpered. He could feel that it wasn't only his own consciousness asking.

"He left us. I think he went to find the men looking for him. From the Center. You're from there aren't you? Who are you anyway?" Jack inquired, calmer then before.

"I'mm... I guesss youu couuld say... hiiss daad." He shrugged, still laying down.

"I can't believe this, I can _not_ believe this." Henry said pacing, swinging the gun around.

"Youu don'tt need thaat. I'mm noot goinng too hurrt youu. Ii wannted to finnd youu, too hellp youu." Dustin said sitting up again. "Ii wannt too savee myy sonn."

"Let's get one thing straight pooch, _he's my son_!" Henry yelled.

Dustin lowered his head in a halfhearted attempt to be assertive. "Duusstin. II'mm noot aa 'poochh'." He knew it was useless to get them to understand his side.

"Dustbin?"

"urgh, Noo, Duusttiiin. Hammilltoon." He said trying to enunciate better.

"Dustin? Dustin. Why does that name sound famil... you're _that Dustin_?!" Henry exclaimed.

"Youu knnow mee?" He was truly puzzled.

Henry nodded as the puzzle pieces were fitting together. "Edward said that he had a dream of being in a hospital room with the name 'Dustin' written on a card. He thought it was some kind of repressed memory."

Dustin cocked his head to the side. He couldn't recall Edward being in a hospital room and thought about what it could mean, then it hit him. It had never occurred to anyone at the Center that the chimera's could have genetic memories. "Whhen II waas tweelve I hadd neemonia... II almmost dieed." He said. "Hee remmemberss thatt?"

"Yeah. He dreamt it. But he also remembers a man at the Center that would keep an eye on him, feel for him when the others were cruel. But he said that he and that man didn't talk much, and that the man also smelled like himself. Since it's very unlikely that a stranger would have his identical scent, I suspect that that man is you, he was cloned from you." Henry said, not entirely thrilled with the idea that his son was just a copy.

Jack's eyes went wide, it hadn't occurred to him that the same one that was nice to Ed was the one that gave up the genetic material for the human part of his body, Dustin was like Ed's dad. And, Dustin gradually saw him like his son, taking care of him at the Center. "Yeah, you know, Ed only recently remembered this stuff. I think it is still jumbled up in his head, he is still figuring some things out, or was, when we saw him last. I got a few clues, and Ed laid it out for Dad when he was half asleep, so we had some trouble making sense of all of them. Anyway, Edward said that a nice man would take some time, to play with him and some eagles... that was you too right?"

"Ohh... yeaah. Whhenn eeveryonne lefft foor thee dayy. II stayyed laate annd wwe playyed inn thee traaining grrounnds." Dustin smiled at the memory of him and Edward stealing time to go laying in the fake grass and play tag.

"How did you..?" Henry motioned at his new body inside of their old dog.

Dustin smirked and said, "Thheyy fiired mee." He found it oddly funny but they weren't laughing.

"What happened to Dan?"

"Hee's stiill inn herre, sommewherre... popps upp heere annd therre."

"Can he talk to us?" Jack asked, wondering if Dan could learn from him.

"II donn't knoow."

"Can we get him back?"

"Whhatt?! Heyy, hee iss jusst aa stuupid dogg. II'd bee deaad iff hee takkes ovver."

"But don't you have your own body?"

"Theeyy killled mee. Mmy minnd's alll thaat's lefft." He gazed at the ground then back up at them and got suddenly irate at their wanting their dog over his life.

"Heyy, II nnever assked foor thiss! Youu thinnk I wannt too bee aa fuuckin doog forr thhe resst off myy liffe?" He showed off his huge clumsy paws at them, growling indignantly at the increasingly unreasonable and unfair turn in events.

"We just.."

"Ii'm luucky too bee alivve! Allberrt wannted Eddwarrd too killl mee. II hadd too _litterally_ runn foor myy liffe frrom therre. Soo I'mm sorryy Ii donn't wannt too roll ovver _annd diie_ for youur _dog_." He growled at them.

"We never said that!"

"Thhenn putt thee gunn dowwn." He glared at Henry.

"Fine. It's away. Happy?" Henry said as he put the safety back on and took it back to the truck and tucked it under the seat.

"Thhannks." He nodded and took a few steps towards them. "Caan youu pllease takke thiis damnned roppe off? Itt's hurrting myy neeck."

"Right, right." Jack said quickly and he loosened it and cautiously took it off of the dog, half expecting him to bite.

Dustin did a whole body shake to calm the agitated fur and start over and walked bravely up to them.

Jack and Henry were still uneasy about him so they stood still. After a moment they calmed down a little bit and Dustin sighed, happy that he survived long enough for for this meeting with Ed's adoptive family. He raised a paw in front of them as proper introductions were necessary.

"Hhii, I'mm Duustin, annd I'mm goinng too hellp savve ourr sonn." He said with a friendly smirk. He set his front paw back down, somewhat discomfited, because he just realized that it was only a half step away from being an old dog's trick, to 'shake' hands.

"I'm uh Henry, and this is Jack. But you already knew that..." Henry shrugged, unsure how much Dustin already knew about his family, what Dan had communicated to him. Henry hoped it wasn't _everything_ that Dan had experienced while living with the family. Some moments should remain private. But, it seems they now have to trust this new guy and adopt him into the family as well, they really didn't have much of a choice. On further consideration, it could be worse, this Dustin fellow seems harmless enough, and he is Ed's original 'father' and his former protector as well, so he couldn't be all that bad.

"Hey, um Dustin? I'm not pointing fingers or anything but umm... " Jack trailed off briefly, considering how to ask the question to their new ally. "Do you know what happened to my mom? Her name is Janet and she's got brown hair and blue eyes... about 5 ft 8?"

Henry nodded and cupped his hand to his mouth.

"Have you seen her?" Jack asked in almost a whisper.

"Yeaah... IIi havve." Dustin said sadly.

Henry burst with questions, "Is she ok? When did you see her? Where is she?"

"Shhee's ffinne... whhenn II saww herr..." He tried to count how many hours ago and was sad when he finally came to the answer. He realized that dogs have a poor sense of time, and didn't realize till now just how long it'd been since he saw her in person. 'Anything could have happened to her by now.' Dustin thought sadly.

Dustin sighed and hung his head."Thirrty hoourrs aggo."

"What? How long?" Henry said in disbelief, their chances of finding her alive were dwindling by the hour.

"Iit tookk timme too geet too youu, I haad too goo byy ice truuck, foott annd seemmi annd Ii waas att thee Blinnd plaace foor awwhille."

"How far is it to the Center from here?"

"Whherre arre wwe?"

"A few miles out from Bitteroot."

"Wherre?" Dustin cocked his head and asked for a map. Henry got out his road atlas and pointed to the small town just off of the road they were taking south.

"Noo nno... youu're wayy offf." Dustin shook his head and tried to be as accurate as possible when pointing with his big clumsy paw on the small map. He removed his foot and stared at the map for awhile, to make sure he could read it correctly.

"Can you just tell us where the Center is?"

"Noott eaasy... Iit's nott onn aa maap." Dustin frowned in concentration.

"Oh, heh, we know what that's like." Jack nudged his Dad. "Is everyone from a super secret location?"

"So what's wrong with your voice? Why are you always whispering?" Henry asked. "Dan's bark was almost epic. Loud, boisterous, and in spades."

"TTheyy tookk ouut thee voiice... voiicce thinng..." Dustin stared at the ground trying to remember the name.

"Voice box? Vocal cords?"

Dustin nodded and tried to point at his neck. He put his forepaw down and scratched furiously at his neck with his hind leg, leaning into the itchy scar. Henry caught and held his hind leg still, worried that he might accidentally do some harm to the area. He gently felt around the neck and found the two inch scar. "Assholes." He muttered angrily.

"II'mm sorryy, itt's geetting harrd..." Dustin said as he slowly shook his head back and forth with his eyes closed tight. "Heeadacche."

"You have a headache?"

Dustin whimpered and nodded. He laid down and put a paw over his eyes.

Jack knelt down and pet his head like he'd done for his dog for years. It didn't matter to him who else was in there too, he had been through a lot and obviously needed consoling.

"C'mon, I think he needs some rest. We should start heading to your aunt Ana's house to start, from there it should only be a few hours drive to the Center. We still have a lot of miles to put between here and there. Can you help me get him into the truck?" Henry asked.

Dustin tried to walk alongside but staggered and stumbled on the ground as if it was a churning sea of dirt and scrubby grass. Henry knelt down and hefted his torso up while Jack went for the belly to assist. He was pretty heavy and awkward to carry between the two of them so Henry hoisted the whole body between his arms and walked the rest of the way. He put the dog on the front passenger side seat of the truck to keep a better eye on him rather then leaving him alone inside the camper.

Jack untied the rope from the tree and threw it in the back of the truck, then found the flashlight on the ground close to the collar belt. Picking that up too, he stuffed it into his pocket and kicked dirt over the word 'frend' that Dustin had drawn on the ground. Hiding the evidence of intelligent beings in animal bodies was a habit he learned from back in his early days with Ed. Leave no trace they were there for their safety.

'Heh. He spelled 'friend' wrong... unless he meant to spell fiend.' Jack scoffed at that notion and locked the camper door. He lifted the dog's forepaws and laid them on his lap after he too climbed in the truck's cab. It was a tight fit, but the three of them managed on the one bench seat. Henry drove in a wide loop around the junkyard to get on the narrow exit and turned south. He drove on as the new sun's rays dappled the ground. He pet the dog at his side and heard it mumble something unintelligible. Not because he couldn't hear Dustin, but because Dustin was steadily loosing control over the body.

Dan un-tucked his tail and wagged it feebly next to himself. Jack noticed that the dog seemed a little lost 'waking up' in the truck, as Dan's last clear memory was the bleach white surgical room just before the operation that basically shoved Dustin's mind into his body. Dan felt the other presence there with him now, and did not want it to come back again. That other presence was not welcomed because it made others frightened of him, so it must not be nice. He could tolerate it, so long as it quiets down. Much like one would tolerate an insect in the house, so long as it stayed far away, the second the bug gets too close, it must be squashed.

Dan laid there in a baffled daze trying to sort out what had happened in the missing time. His body and feet hurt from traveling but he didn't recall any part of the trip. His body even smelled differently now and he blamed the intruding presence for that too. He was getting more and more power back from that intruder and then he recognized Jack and Henry and woofed silently in greeting to his real masters.

Jack and Henry could only guess what was going through the dog's head. They sympathized with Dustin's undeserved plight. Jack loved this old dog very much, but Dustin here was Edward's original father, and it was immensely cruel to do this to a human. Edward had never known life as anything but an animal and human hybrid so it wasn't as bad as being subjected to such a drastic and permanent change. And Dustin had it much worse then that, he could be erased from existence should Dan decide to take over completely. It was unfair to Dan as well to be hijacked by someone else. To be forced to do as some other being wanted, used like a puppet.

Jack wondered if Dan allowed Dustin to lead for that long because that is what the dog was trained for, to do whatever his master wanted him to do. Jack thought to himself, 'Still... this has to be the hardest existence... for both of them. I hope that if we ever get to the Center, they could somehow return Dustin to his body and to let Dan have his own back. Wishful thinking, I know. Dustin said that he would be dead if he wasn't inside Dan's mind now. I don't know if I could ever cope with that, if it were me in some animal's body.' Jack shivered at the thought.

There were a million questions he wanted to ask Dustin but it was apparent that all the excitement had drained him. Dustin had probably kept himself awake, waiting for someone to pick him up from those places. To remain alert and on guard should the wrong guys show up for him at any time during his trip.

Dustin and Dan's minds were in turmoil. They were in a vague agreement to let Dustin lead in order to find the family, but now that they were reunited, Dan wanted full capacity back. He didn't understand that to get Edward and Janet back as well, Dustin had to remain in control for a while longer. Dustin eventually gave up and let the dog have fun for now, he was pretty confident that he could watch from afar and jump back in when he was needed. It was a very odd sensation, letting go. Looking through the dog's eyes as it felt Jack breath and pet his furry head and watch the trees fly by outside. Dustin felt bad for taking over for such a long time. Dan must have been getting more and more frustrated at being led everywhere nonstop. Even a working dog gets a break every half hour. Dan was interested in the simpler aspects of life and it was very relaxing for Dustin to watch as the dog took great comfort in the simple pets on his head by Jack, and feeling the breaths, listening to all of the sounds that surround him. Dan nuzzled Jack's hand and was rewarded with a good ear rub. Dustin would never admit it, but that simple act of kindness was very well appreciated, and he fell peacefully asleep inside the mind.

Dustin rested. The dog kept watch. Henry drove with Jack reading the map, and rubbing the dog's ears.

 


	20. The Words That Stung

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albert lays out some hard truths for Ed.

Chapter 20 The words that stung

 

 

 

"Nina should be here shortly. She went to retrieve our men from the town's prison first. Bail was not cheap."

"You should have left them there. They aren't worth bail if they can be so easily caught by local bumpkins." He said a bit perturbed at the added expense, "When does his plane land?"

"A few minutes, Sir."

"Good. As soon as we're able, I want everyone available to clean out their rooms. Everything incriminating should be moved right away. Have you found out who our mole is?"

"Not yet, Sir. We're interviewing the people involved with Dustin's operation first. So far, they have no clue."

"No clue? No one else knew about his operation but you, me, and 5 others. As soon as Skullivan gets back to base, I want to talk to him myself. A bit convenient that he should be the last one that saw Dustin in the cells and is one of the last one's to use the elevator before it crashed."

"Sir, others have used it since then." The underling did not dare to mention that his boss also had used the elevator room since Skullivan's departure.

"And is everyone accounted for? Who all here has knowledge on how to disable our custom built elevator system?"

"It would have to have been someone with the original company, before we moved it from our first location to this one, Sir."

"There are so few left of us 'originals'... I can't see the others sabotaging it when they are all accounted for down here. It doesn't make sense to trap themselves as well. Skullivan might not have been here since the beginning but he is one of our technical support crews. He might have rigged something after the elevator system was first brought online." Albert thought for a minute. "Still, whoever crashed it didn't expect us to have anyone down here to fix it. It is up and running again, correct?"

"Yes Sir. But it will be a bit of a bumpy ride."

"That's not a problem. We are moving from here soon anyway. Go and make sure that everyone is set up and ready to go with only the essentials, we don't need to cart everything to the surface, leave the desks and chairs and the kitchen sink and all that." Albert chuckled lightly. He was in high spirits despite the challenge of bugging out an entire underground facility. The size of which alone would rival most mansions were it above ground, and more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

"Yes Sir, it should only take an hour or so for everyone to be ready. No later then 2:30am, I think."

"Tell Dr. Stein to have Site B up and running by the time we get there. Send some people along to help secure that location. The guards up top would do, no need to guard an unoccupied building. Oh and if they haven't left already, pull out every one of our men from Amystriss and that neighboring town. There's no way anyone from that town could know where to find us. Even though Edward spent years with them, there is little risk of that father and son ever finding us." Albert waited for the man to open up a set of doors for them to pass, once through, he continued to lecture even though it was fairly common knowledge at the Center, "Edward never knew exactly where we were located, that was the point. He couldn't be traced back to us, nor lead anyone to our locations."

There was a beep on a small electronic device hooked onto Albert's belt, akin to a souped up cell phone that was able to work deep underground. He checked it, grinned, and marched his way over to the elevator and went up. The ride was indeed quite harrowing but well worth it. He strode out of the front door of the cabin and gazed at a kennel being carried by two of his men.

Albert grinned and knelt down on the ground in front of the 3ft cubed sheet metal box, with one barred side being the locked door. He jovially taped the front bars with his knuckles and said, "Welcome home Fifteen. Or would you prefer, 'Edward'?" He beamed.

"Albert." Edward said, practically snarling through the metal muzzle secured to his head.

"Come on in. We're so glad you decided to return home." Albert invited, as if Ed had a choice.

Edward glared at him and his fur bristled. He was a little pleased that the last few years were not kind to Albert, he looked much older then before. Albert's white hair was now half combed over and his gait, though quick, had hint of a limp now and then.

"Bring him on down."

The heavy kennel swung between the two carriers as he was taken to the elevator and brought down to the 2nd highest level. There, was the huge dining hall and meeting room. Edward couldn't see very well from the front end of the kennel as it had multiple bars close together similar to a rat's cage. The other sides of the kennel were made of sheet metal with the odd hole here and there close to the top. He could tell more or less where they were by the smells, and his stomach made expecting noises. He laid down so it wasn't so audible and embarrassing. It's hard to look badass with a yowling stomach.

His kennel was set down on top of a huge table and shifted around to face Albert's seat. Albert picked up a plate of well seasoned swordfish and placed it in front of Edward's cage. Edward inhaled the incredibly alluring scent of the expensive fish and he grudgingly salivated. He didn't want to show he was at all weak from hunger. It actually wasn't a very long time ago, but the previous meal at the safe house wasn't enough to satisfy for any length of time.

"We figured out why you are the only one that can change shape from such a far distance away from our machines. It's really so simple. I'm ashamed to say that it took us some time to figure it out." Albert tipped the plate up for Edward to see how delicious the fish cutlet was on the plate. Its juices dripped down the side of the plate and onto the table. Edward licked his hungry lips just to keep himself from slobbering.

"Fish." Albert said simply, as if that was enough of an answer for Edward. Ed reluctantly lifted his eyes from the tender cutlet and cocked his head at Albert. Albert wasn't looking at him, so instead he watched the fish dance in the air at the end of the manic fork as Albert talked with his hands half the time. Small droplets of sauce flew about the table. Albert tipped it into his mouth and swallowed without chewing.

"You ate fish. Fish has mercury." Albert laughed out loud and picked up a knife in his other hand and cut off a another piece and held it close to Edward's face from behind the bars. Waving it about as he spoke, "We were planning for you to go to the deserts of the far east, where you would live off of what you could find out there, namely mice and rats, the occasional carrion, you get the idea. What we hadn't expected is for you to ever eat fish, especially not on a daily basis. Mercury heavy fish, like this swordfish..." he ate the piece and rolled his eyes in delight over the flavor. "Mercury had slowly merged with the magnititals in your system as well as all of the other microscopic nanites. It took several months but eventually it enhanced its performance. It could pick up on the waves much easier and made you transform, even though you were much further from the source. My guys in lab 5 could explain it a lot better."

Edward kept his eyes on the plate and couldn't stop salivating at it. He looked up when Albert stopped talking. "So?"

"So, you helped us solve a problem that would have cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix!" Albert said happily. "Who would have guessed that such an inexpensive solution would arise out of your new-found love of tuna! We know that it was 5 solid months before you transformed after joining that family. What you didn't know, is that that whole time we were doing the long range wave tests with Nina. Unfortunately we were unable to make any significant progress with it, so we discontinued the long range wave tests to conserve energy costs till we could figure out a more efficient way of sending the waves out. If you only knew how expensive this whole business is!" He waved his free hand around at the room, which had the adverse effect of showing how little they paid for quality construction. Albert took another bite of fish.

"Well, some of those dark matter tests were not a total loss. We were able to build a smaller device that would switch the magnititals, but its effects were not always as strong. As soon as we figured out it was the mercury you were exposed to over the years, we injected Nina with a biological solution rich with mercury. So, like you, she should be able to transform without relying on the portable or the long range waves. We will just use good ol' Bessy to make you and Nina shift."

"Where is Nina? I thought I sensed her in Amystriss..." Edward could detect faint traces of her scent coming from Albert himself. Old memories combining with new ones, he is sure she was the one that was tracking them when he and Jack were walking along the riverbank a day and a half ago. Ed was now glad he chose not to pursue and kill her back then, instead, continuing on with Jack to his dad's work site.

"Mmm?" Albert inquired uninterestedly as he cut off another piece of swordfish, and drank some opaque alcoholic drink. He opened his mouth wide and 'ahhed' at its apparent strong bitter taste. It tickled Edward's nose and he snorted into the muzzle.

"I'm sorry we have to leave that on you. We aren't a hundred percent sure yet if you are back to being a team player." Albert said referring to the metal muzzle.

"You know why I'm here... don't think that there is any other reason, any loyalty to this place." Edward lowered his head. Partly for effect, but mostly because the muzzle weighed more then it seemed.

"I admire your honesty." He set down his drink and cut off a few largish hunks of the fish and placed them inside Edward's kennel just in front of him as a reward.

"I don't want it."

"Suit yourself." Albert shrugged and ate the rest of the meal quickly, making an odd comment that Ed just barely heard, "I also feed off of the tears of orphans, but I like swordfish better." He chuckled only to himself and called a man over to clear the table.

"Now. To business.” he said, putting weight on his elbows and lacing his fingers in front of Ed's cage. "I'm not going to patronize you, and think that you don't already know what we do here. For the last 3 years you were with that family you supposedly had no idea where you had come from." He leaned forward. "I'm assuming that you do now, correct?"

Edward hesitated at the word 'supposedly' but then nodded.

"When was the first moment that you began to remember this place. I'm just curious."

Ed looked up behind Albert's head to a clock on the wall and was surprised that more time had not passed. "Well, It look's like it's now 1:45am Thursday morning according to that clock. Tuesday at noon is when you sent your goons in to fetch me from my school. That's when it started."

"Go on. How did you feel?"

"I felt... scared." Edward said looking Albert in the eyes. It was pointless to lie, Albert could always sense when someone was deceiving him and they usually paid dearly for it.

Ed continued, "It started out as just... random ideas. Like, it was as if someone was spinning the dial on a radio and you heard mostly unintelligible chatter till you get to a line, a sentence fragment, or emotional note in a song that suddenly makes sense. I guess it was kinda like that. Me an' Jack would be doing something on our trip and a brief glimpse of clarity would hit me. He actually noticed it more then I did at the time. My brother was always good at that." Edward bit his lip.

Edward shivered and his voice took a deeper tone. "The more you guys chased us the more clearly the memories became." Edward shot an accusing look up at him. "Damn it Albert, _I was happy there!_ " He yelled furiously, "I was happy to be just some stupid kid with a strange quirk. I was respected! _I had a life there!_ Why couldn't you just let me be?"

Albert abruptly stood up from his seat and rested a hand on the latch to the kennel. Edward instantly shrank back, expecting a fast strike from the other hand. Albert leaned forward slightly, in a sympathetic way. "You must have known, that life wouldn't have lasted." Albert said solemnly.

That had stung Edward.

It hurt more then he thought possible. More then all of the injuries that he had received in all his life. Because, deep down, he had felt that it was the inescapable truth. In the past, it was always gnawing at him from the dark corners of his mind. The sleepless nights when the normal world seemed like a far off dream, the nights he spent in the park alone, the inexplicable need to be alone. At the time, he had dismissed his actions and feelings as simple shyness but, he knew better. He knew that he wasn't letting himself get too comfortable with the life he had been given. It was too good to last, in every sense of the word.

Hot tears fell from his eyes and down the sides of his face. He turned around and sobbed softly into the corner of his cage. "It lasted long enough." He surrendered with disheartened understanding and acceptance of someone sentenced to die.

Albert quietly left him there for a while. His leadership was required in moving the entire Center to the other location. But mostly, Albert left out of sympathy and consideration for Edward's emotional state.

Edward turned back around eventually and found that Albert had left the large hall. Most of the busy employees had also dispersed to separate rooms only to reappear with boxes full of important looking equipment. Strange devices were quickly being hauled past his kennel towards the elevator. He wondered what most of the stuff was because it seemed newer then what he had remembered before. He tried to see out of the small holes at the other 3 sides of the cage but the metal muzzle kept him from getting a good view. From what he could tell, the people were all packing up to leave, and that everyone was very cautious about the elevator for some reason. Almost afraid of it. Sure it was a bumpy ride on down but Ed chalked it up to normal wear and tear. He sniffed at the swordfish chunks in front of him and after an elaborate set of movements of his head and paws, he was finally able to eat the lukewarm pieces through the muzzle.

Some men spoke as they passed by, "He said to take her up last so I think that will be up to Dr. Furter to do."

"He's the one that worked on Frank right?"

"Yeah, he's the best. If anyone can do it he can. He'll have her jumping through hoops just to prove it."

Edward attempted to hear who the heck they were referring to but they shut the door behind them. He tried to sniff out people that he had known years ago, to identify them, but apparently there were now so few people left that the strange scents were overwhelming. He was almost convinced that this was no longer the Center until he saw Albert walk through the doors on the far side of the room carrying a few sheets of paper attached to a green wooden clipboard. He remembered those clipboards very well. The scientists were never without them when they were around him. Forever documenting his behavior and progress. The effects of this drug or that. His measurements before and after everything, eating, sleeping, exercising, defecating. Every day and night. He hated those clipboards. Measuring up his life on paper.

He had a sudden thought and started to laugh. It was now Albert's turn to cock his head to the side.

"I've been doing the same damn thing for years in my journals!" he muttered to himself.

"What's that all about?" Albert asked when he got closer.

"Nothing, nothing. Well, ya see, I'd been writing my daily events in some journals for a long time now, and just recently I thought it was because I was trained to observe and report but I guess I was just copying what I saw them doing."

"Who?"

"Them, them, you know..." He waved a paw at some white coats that passed by with some bundles of complicated looking wires. "They wrote down everything I did everyday. I had been inadvertently trained to do the same thing. You guys just thought it was the training kicking in but it's more like, monkey see monkey do! I'm surprised I didn't start wearing white coats and cheap cologne." Ed chuckled lightly.

Albert shook his head at Ed and discretely sniffed his own jacket and wondered if his cologne also smelled as bad. He caught Ed watching him and grinned. He allowed himself this brief moment with Ed, because he knew things would become very difficult for him very soon.

He set the clipboard down, and sat across from Ed again. His smile faded as he lifted up the top edge of the clipboard so Edward could read it.

'Janet Johnson : maiden name - Janet Marie Elric. Born October 3rd 1971\. Parents deceased. 5 ft 7 inches. 178 lbs. Brown hair, blue/green eyes. Blood type: A+. Spouse : Henry Anthony Johnson 40 yrs old. Son : Jack Timothy Johnson 15 yrs old.' Underneath were several graphs depicting her heart rate over time under H2G2, then under JRRT. Albert then pointed to a series of affirmed check marks for a whole wide range of criteria that was met in her preliminary tests.

Edward stopped reading when he realized what it really meant. "You can't!" He said angrily.

"How are you going to stop them?" Albert said putting the clipboard down and folding his hands over it.

"Look, you have me now, so just let her go." Edward pleaded.

"That's not up to me." Albert said flatly.

"Of course it is! You're the one in charge, right?"

Albert glared angrily at Edward, "Not since you ran off!" He shouted and threw the clipboard across the room. Ed crouched down in fear.

"The committee is in charge now. Thanks to you I had lost my credibility as a leader. They said I failed to train you here at the Center. And since they didn't have you anymore they used little Nina instead. You _arrogant_ fool!" Albert fumed at Ed's thoughtless act 3 years ago. If he had stayed, Nina might have been spared from doing his job. "You wouldn't listen before, so now we have to try a different tactic. We couldn't make you obey me or anyone else back then because we had no leverage on you. You didn't have anyone to care about before, to protect, to live for. Since it was only your skin you were concerned about, it was easier for you to disobey."

Albert paused to catch his breath and said, "Till now."

Edward raised his head, even though the guilt was crushing him.

Albert grinned at him, but not in a friendly way, and picked up his kennel and took it down the hall to a room with a 2 way mirror. Janet was sitting on a strong wooden armchair and hunched over, apparently drugged out of her mind, staring at her toes as they wiggled in front of her. She giggled silently in her room and swayed back and forth slowly. Obviously unconcerned that she was handcuffed to her seat with her legs and chest strapped firmly to the chair.  
"She can't hear you so don't bother calling out to her."

"What do you want? Why did you take her? That woman. She means nothing to you or me now." Edward said, trying to convince Albert as well as himself. He tried to hide the pain of seeing his mother in such a state. Pretending that she was simply some other person, someone of little importance to either of them.

"But she obviously does mean something to you, though you try to hide it. You know it's your fault that she's here. And it's all up to you whether or not she gets to leave with her life."

" _Don't you fucking touch her_!" Edward roared.

"You, and only you, have the power to keep her safe. I'm not in control over this facility. I'm telling you this because you need to understand what is really going on."

Edward hissed, "Don't pretend for a second that you don't _love_ doing this shit. I know you better then you think."

Albert dropped the kennel to the ground and Edward fell to his side. His metal muzzle was knocked off kilter and made his jaw jut out to the side.

Albert spoke with a growl that was unmatched by any animal, " _Listen._ I'm only here to tell you the rules the council made. If you follow them, she goes free. You have my word. _However_ , you _will_ stay with the Center for the rest of your life. You should know that your new masters will not be as lenient as I had been."

"I don't care what happens to me. Just let her go home. Beat me, kill me, dissect me, I don't care. As long as she is safe at home." Edward said in a low tone.

Nearly imperceptibly, Albert softened his tone. "Brave words. We will see if you mean it." he opened up the kennel door and straightened Ed's muzzle for him. Edward sat incredibly still, not even daring to breath, knowing full well the hellfire that would reign down on him should he try anything with Albert. Besides that, he wasn't in any shape to be attacking someone 10 times his size.

Albert continued, "We will begin your retraining at the new site. I can discuss the results of your completed mission better when we get there."

"What? What mission?"

"For the record, you passed. Just barely." Albert's lip curled upward as he hoisted the kennel over his shoulder with ease and took him to the elevator.

They saw a young girl walk in from the elevator room and stop just in front of them. Her face seemed brighter for having seen the two of them, and surprisingly, Albert's mood lightened to mirror hers.

"Welcome back, Darling! How was the trip?" Albert asked with a broad smile.

"We really need some better recruits, those guys wouldn't last one day out there." She pointed an accusing finger at the men who slinked in after her and went to their posts. A couple were still wearing their prison attire. Albert assumed she might have broken them out of jail rather then wait around and pay for the bail or worry about paperwork.

"Where on Earth did you find that?" Albert stroked a sleeve of the old, careworn leather jacket that hung from her thin shoulders.

"Oh, it's theirs. That kid Jack was wearing it then just let it go in the river. I found it downstream just before the waterfalls. I like it." She smiled and twirled in front of them. She winked at Edward who stared bewildered at her.

"Nina?" He whispered. He hadn't seen her in years, back then she appeared to be only 6. Now, she was standing in front of him nearly 14 years old, and an envious 6 inches taller then he was in his human form.

"Yeah, who else could I be? Oh right, you probably see a lot of people with tails from that stupid town. So pathetic. It really is pathetic. I'm surprised that you could stand living amongst those 'people'. I could have picked off the whole town one by one without anyone suspecting a thing. Just like the Kubalis job last year. Fifteen, you were sloppy. Every damn person in that town knew who you were. I admit it made it tricky to remove you, but it was fun. Just knowing that I could have killed you at least a dozen times. You _and_ that weak 'family' of yours."

"Nina. Be nice." Albert warned.

"Fine." She huffed and folded her arms. She then pouted and stood on her tip toes to get closer to Albert's ears. "When will you be done?"

"Later, go and get some guys to help you bring the woman to the other site."

"Ok. Love you Daddy." She said sweetly and hopped up to kiss his cheek a foot over her head.

"You too Sweetheart." He said back to her and zippered up the jacket so it wasn't so provocative on the small, young teen.

Edward's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe that he hadn't seen it before. Ignoring the chimera's shifting side of her that kept her body small like Ed's human form, the resemblance between Nina and Albert was obvious. They had the same eyes, speech and temperament. As well as his parental love for her, there was a kindness in his voice that he reserved only for her.

As Ed's kennel was toted along up the steps to the elevator, he then was hit by the new horrific revelation that even though Nina was Albert's daughter, he still trained her to be a killer. His hopes of finding humanity in Albert was washed away as the young assassin girl floated on her toes down the halls.

His heart went out for her because he knew that she was probably brainwashed since she was able to understand words. Nina had no idea how satisfying a peaceful life could be, no clue that a better life could be easily led in that 'pathetic town'. He held out little hope for her as she disappeared down a corridor leading to the room Janet was being held in.

She was an assassin, and she is headed for Janet's room!

"Let me out of here! Let me go, call her back!" He shouted over and over as he tried to pry the lock from the door. "Leave my mom alone!"

"Shut up. She's not going to hurt her. Calm down." Albert scolded Edward's futile attempts at escape. "At least pretend that you're a professional!" He admonished as he firmly put the kennel down in the elevator. "If we wanted her dead, she would be dead already. I don't need to send Nina in for that."

"How could you do that? Nina was so nice before. She didn't deserve this life." Edward said as the doors closed and they ascended to the top. He tried to put aside the fact that it was his own leaving that forced the Center to use Nina in his place. It was too much to think about, 'Albert could have said no. He must have been able to say no.'

"Edward, I know what you're thinking, and there is no other reason for her existence, or yours for that matter. This is the sole purpose of both of your lives. Be grateful you have a purpose in life. Most people walk around today have no purpose, no meaning to their existence." After a pause he said, "Trust me."

Edward thought about that while his kennel was taken out of the fake cabin to the area where the cars were parked and hidden from view. His kennel was carried to a large black car that was unmistakably Albert's own car. It was definitely not a company car or rental, for one, it was custom built to house Albert's formidable form in full comfort. The driver's seat resembled a lazy-boy recliner stuffed inside the car. The other seats were smaller just to accommodate the oversized seat. Ed's kennel was positioned in the back right hand seat and belted in place to keep it from shifting around in transit.

The entire convoy drove in single file in the dark night, but once on the main roads, Edward could see that the line of cars split away from each other like a firework going off. He knew that they would take their own way to the new site by using the homing device hooked into their GPS. Making it less likely they would be followed successfully or watched.

"Let's stop for some snacks." Albert said suddenly.

"What?" Edward said jerking his head up, Albert's mood swings were giving him whiplash.

"Snacks, you know, chips. You like chips right?"

"Um yeah, kinda..." Edward said, wary of Albert's friendliness.

"And beef jerky. I'll be out in a minute." Albert said swiftly as he pulled into the side yard of a small all-night gas station. The neon sign only illuminated so much, but Ed could see pretty well without it. A few young people passed by the car after Albert went into the store and Edward waved at them but the tinted windows and soundproofing that Albert had installed did their job too well. If left in there he would suffocate in the air tight vehicle. The cold desert air began to freeze the car and he was shivering before Albert eventually returned with a bag full of food, liquor, and power drinks. He turned on the car and the heat kicked back into life. Ed pressed his body against the bars and let the warm air wash over him. The metal muzzle retained a chill from the cold air and was uncomfortable to say the least.

"You like grape right?" Albert asked as he pulled out a Pangal Blaster from the bag next to his driver's seat.

"Err, yeah. We had that brand at home, and electrolyte water was stored in the closets at the school for me. But I can't really drink it now..." He said and shook the muzzle, making it clink.

"Right right, let's get to a good spot before we eat." Albert turned back around and drove to a dirt road and stopped well inside the treeline, practically invisible to the highway. He turned on the overhead dome light low to help them see what they were doing before getting out of the front seat and going around to sit next to Edward's kennel door in the backseat. He locked the car and tucked the keys into the inside of his coat pocket.

Albert leaned forward a little to see Ed inside the kennel. "You know me, and I know you. So I'm going to trust that you're smart enough to behave."

"Yes Sir." Edward said obediently and his kennel door was opened. Albert reached in and unlatched the muzzle from Edward's head.

"Thanks." Ed said, stretching his stiff jaw and mouth around. He took a few tentative steps out of the carrier and jumped up on top of it and laid down, showing that he wasn't trying to escape. He simply wanted to be eye to eye with Albert. He also didn't want to be easily shoved back into the kennel while they talked.

Albert pulled out an old mug from the central arm rest for the front seats and poured a measure of the grape drink into it and set it on top of the cage for Ed. He also opened up a package of jerky and broke it up into small pieces for him and laid them next to the mug.

"Go ahead, I know it's been awhile since you last ate."

"Thank you, Sir." Ed said between mouthfuls of masticated meat. After their meal, Edward cleaned his face with his paws and then faced Albert and took a satisfied breath of thanks.

"You should drink up that juice. They are planning to do some long range tests on you when we get there. You'll need your strength."

"I don't understand why you care so much about me..." Ed started, "I admit, I was expecting much worse treatment. Not that I'm looking forward to it," he gave a fleeting glance to Albert, to ask for clemency, and continued, "What I mean is, it doesn't seem like you care that much about your daughter." Edward said hesitantly, referring to the dangerous missions Nina was sent on.

"She's not my daughter. My daughter died years ago. That thing is not my Nina." Albert said firmly, looking past Edward.

"Then why does she call you 'Daddy'?"

"Because it's easier for her to take orders if she thinks it's coming from her father. I know she would do whatever I tell her to do, because she thinks I love her."

"Do you?"

"That's irrelevant. I didn't bring you aside to talk about my life." He said in a mildly irate tone. "I might as well tell you now," he changed the subject, "for the last 3 years you were actually being tested and trained in that town."

Edward cocked his head with concern, then grinned and gave a 'you got me' look at him. "Stupid joke, I've seen it all before in movies. 'It was all a dream'." he mocked.

"Did it ever occur to you that Amystriss is strikingly similar to the Center? Shrouded in secrecy. A huge electric perimeter fence line? The camera surveillance in the city. The fact that no one in the country knows it exists besides its so called 'residents'?"

Edward listened closely. It did seem oddly familiar.

"Your advanced training began when we found you again after that car accident. You were only 'free' for about 4 hours. We let the Johnson family take you in and call you their pet. Originally, we were planning on training you how to blend into society with a pre-approved family we would hire, but this opportunity arose and we took advantage of it. We were ready to jump in at any moment if the situation got too out of hand. You were being monitored for years on our hijacked security system. Our guys were able to watch you from every public camera, surveillance camera, and agents dressed like civilians and neighbors." he could see Ed start to stress out and quickly added, "Now it is true that your family and most of the residents of the town are real people. Not actors or agents. You don't have to doubt their love for you. I know what you're thinking, and don't worry about that." Albert said and smiled at Edward before continuing.

"We knew that you had genuinely lost your memories that night in May of 07, what we wanted to find out is if you could be salvaged. If you could somehow retain your basic and advanced training even though you had to start over. I must say, these past few days have proven that the last 3 years were well worth the wait."

Edward snapped quickly, "You're lying. There's no way you could have followed us for 3 years. I would have seen you guys, smelled you, hell, even sensed you coming from a mile away."

"That's why we were using cameras and decoys. Our monitoring agents were sent in just to observe and report, just as you had been trained. Don't get mad at the fact they could do the job better then you." Albert took a bite of his granola bar.

Edward shook his head in stubborn disbelief.

"I can prove it. How else could I know that on April 10th 2008 that you and the Johnson's went to go swimming at Henry's uncle's estate? How else could I possibly know that you nearly died in the lake because you forgot that you couldn't swim?"

Ed ground his teeth at him, "Bull. You could have gotten that information from anywhere. Everyone knows I can't swim."

"How about the fact that on September 23rd of that same year, you and that boy Jack had tried to permanently remove your tail by freezing it off. With dry ice no less. Very imaginative but ultimately pointless."

"How did you know about that? We haven't told anyone..." Edward looked deep into Albert's eyes for answers. He and Jack only recently told Jen that they removed his tail, but did not say it was by freezing it or what the date was when it happened. If they had gotten the information from his mother it would be different because Janet did not know that dry ice was involved, she and Henry got to the safe house after it had evaporated. Jack insisted on keeping the dry ice a secret from their parents because they wouldn't let the kids near it again. Future Halloween punch bowls would no longer have the dry ice smoke.

'How could Albert know about the dry ice?' Ed still shook his head at Albert.

"Maybe this will help convince you, I know for a fact that the day you moved into Amystriss, your lovely neighbor Maggie had sent your family some flowers that had supposedly just bloomed in her yard. They were fresh, but not from her yard, store-bought flowers are always fresh, even in winter. Good to have nice agents from the Center as neighbors huh? But you know, as a payback, leaving half-dead dogs in your neighbor's kitchen is very rude."

Edward gasped. "What??"

"Oh yeah, your dog. Why would you leave him to die there in the kitchen of your neighbor's house? I was beginning to think you were a pacifist from the reports I've received over the years; catching and releasing local wildlife, but now I see that you simply hadn't found the right animal to kill. No, random animals wouldn't do, you have to get to know them first before letting them die. It's in your nature I suppose." Albert wadded up the granola wrapper and threw it out of the window crack. "So what happened? Did he bite you? Did he give away your position? Or perhaps he did not 'heel' fast enough for you?"

"You son of a bitch! You killed him? He was just a dog!" Edward yelled.

"I didn't kill him. We found him lying there on the kitchen rug in front of the refrigerator. I'm sorry, I assumed you did it so that you and Jack could escape faster, not have to worry about a barking dog giving away your location." Albert apologized but still continued, "But, you're still very sloppy Fifteen. That boy Jack and your prints were all over that house. Jack's bloody hand prints on the doorknob, drops of blood on the floor and all over that half-dead dog, like some kind of crime scene. Oh, I should thank you for letting us know who your informant was, by the way."

Edward couldn't calm down right away and it took several moments of resisting the urge to rip Albert's throat out before he understood the last thing he was saying. "What the hell? What informant are you talking about?"

"The one that tipped you off to our operations. You spelled out his name on the front of the refrigerator. Or maybe it was a message for him to dispose of the dog for you. Either way you exposed a defector for us. And I am grateful you wrote that name."

"What? I don't..." Ed tried to remember what he did spell out on it. He remembered toying with the rubber banana magnet, and the letters. He strained to recall the letters and the order of those letters on that beige refrigerator door.

"D, u, s, t... i, n. Oh my God... I wrote ' _Dustin_ '." He whispered. He cursed himself for bringing in that nice young man from his dreaming memories into this mess. He only knew that he somehow had a few of Dustin's memories. He didn't know that Dustin worked for the Center until now. 'It makes sense though... I guess. That man must have worked for them, not just donated DNA for my body... did I meet him before? Did I ever get a chance to see my ' _father'_? Could he even be considered my father, am I not just his clone? I am him? I wouldn't even exist if it weren't for him.' His thoughts raced and he looked up to Albert. "What did you do to him?" He reluctantly asked.

"We can't have traitors in our company." Albert said flatly.

"Damn you... " Edward said turning away. He only had himself to blame. If he hadn't written Dustin's name on that door... On Tuesday, when he was playing with the magnets on the fridge, one of the things Ed was thinking about was who could help them out in their crisis. Who their allies were. That random memory of a name was all it took to damn an innocent man. Edward thought miserably, 'It's all my fault... it's all... my fault.'

"Never mind the traitor. Let's talk."

Edward growled at Albert but still had enough sense to stay put on top of that cage. Albert could catch him in mid-leap and have him dead before he landed a single blow. He would have to wait. His heart thumped rapidly and he retracted his claws.

"Why should I talk? You're just fishing for new ways to break me."

"Is that what you think? That I'm trying to break you? Don't be ridiculous." Albert said condescendingly. "Like I said before, I'm not the one that you should be afraid of. I'm on your side. I thought you were smart enough to figure that out by now. I saved your life several times, and do I get so much as a 'thank you'?"

Edward belted out, "You only saved my life so that you can sacrifice me later, when I'm of no more _use_ to you. You think that's heroic? What do you want a medal? Congratulations! You tortured chimera children into submission and taught them how to assassinate people. Father of the year!"

Albert slapped Edward's face which knocked him painfully to his side, making him nearly fall off of the kennel. Edward caught himself on one of the circular holes in the side of it and he righted himself closer to the rear of the cage. Immediately regretting his rebuke.

Albert's face was sweating and turning red. He firmly grabbed Edward by the scruff of his neck and dragged him closer, then held Edward aloft only inches from his sweating face. "Now you listen to me," Albert said in a quite threatening rage. "If you don't want to obey me or your new owners, you will die. Your mother will die. And I will send Nina back into that town and have her murder your father and brother as well. Do you understand me?"

Edward whimpered and went limp. "Yes" he muttered defeatedly.

Albert shook Edward's body in his large fist. Reminding Ed how small he was compared to this behemoth.

"I didn't hear you." Albert growled.

"Yes. Yes I understand you." Edward said louder and cowered in front of him. "Please don't hurt them." He whispered, pleading.

Albert tossed Edward's body back into the kennel as if throwing away garbage. He slammed the door shut and locked it again. Edward backed up into the corner and watched as Albert got out of the backseat and stood just outside the front driver-side door facing the highway. A few tense moments passed and eventually Albert got behind the wheel again and pulled back into traffic.

Edward could hear Albert breathing heavily and assumed it was out of anger. He decided to stay as quiet as possible for the rest of the trip. Being very careful not to invoke any more wrath from him.

Albert looked at the kennel in the rear view mirror. "You remember the eagles? Hmm? The one's that you slaughtered?"

Edward shifted uncomfortably in his kennel and said a very quiet, "yes."

"How did it feel."

"What?"

"Murdering those two. Did you enjoy it?" Albert raised an eyebrow in the rear view mirror, and waited for an answer.

"I... no."

"But it looked like you were having fun chasing them around. Up that tree and careening to the ground." Albert was the one behind the cameras, watching the whole event as it played out.

"T-they tried to kill us." Edward said defensively.

"No. They did not. Not you."

"Look at the gashes on my back and tell me they didn't try to kill me."

"You shouldn't have struggled, that's all."

"They would have killed my brother! What was I supposed to do?"

"So in your mind it was justifiable. Killing those birds."

"Yes, completely."

"And when they were dead and no longer posed a threat to you and your 'brother' how did that make you feel."

"Umm... relieved."

"Happy?"

"That we were alive? Yes, of course."

"So you enjoyed killing them."

"Stop putting words in my mouth! I know you made them obey you, they had no choice but to obey you." Edward said irritatedly.

"That is true but that's not what I asked. When you fell a foe, do you take some pride in your work?"

Edward sulked on that question for a moment. "Yes. But you're making it sound like I went after them with blind bloodlust."

"You pursued one up a large tree. You hunted him down even though he left the field of battle. That was going beyond simple defense. You should have let him be. You should have listened to your brother and let it go."

"But you would have had it follow us, you would have ordered it to kill Jack or kidnap me again."

"Here's a little thing you might not know. The eagles can only obey us when their lives are not on the line. We can alter them as much as we want, but that fact we cannot change. An animal's instinct will protect its life. That eagle that fled from you was acting on its own."

"What?"

"You pursued and killed that bird in a wonderfully horrific way when it was trying to escape."

"Shut up. Shut up. I was defending myself! I was defending Jack! You were in control the whole time!"

"You are wrong." Albert said with a smirk.

Edward punched and slammed himself against the sides of his cage as hard as he could, over and over till the blood and anxiety rushed to his head and he collapsed to the floor, exhausted. He was mad at himself. He had almost forgotten about how he felt and acted that night. The sickening feeling of pleasure as he remembered tasting the blood of the birds. Digging in deep into their throats and the feel of warm flesh under his nails. He was disgusted at himself for even thinking of killing something. So he didn't think about it. As if his mind blanked out that whole incident. Only the occasional pain on his spine would remind him about the kills, but only briefly. Edward was so confident that he did the right thing that he was able to block it out.

Edwards voice was small, "You lie. You're a liar. It... I was protecting him..."

"Soon you will have to learn that it's alright. Some things have to die in order for others to live. And sometimes it's just dumb luck that one animal dies and another lives. You can't control everything Edward. You can't see all ends. No one blames you for that bird. If it was smart it should have flown away altogether, where you could not have caught up to it."

Edward shifted a bit and perked an ear. He needed something, someone to tell him that everything's going to be ok. Someone to tell him what to do.

"That bird turned and went for you in the tree on its own accord. Now I've told you that we cannot control any of our drones when they are in mortal danger. It attacked you in the tree because it saw you as a foe. With or without us it decided on its own and _only its own_ that it would kill you. You did the right thing by killing it. We simply wanted to bring you back to base. We didn't want you harmed and if our eagles are going to try to do that, then we don't want them. When those two failed, I ordered the rest of the birds to be dismantled."

"What?! You killed them?"

"No. No, you misunderstand me. We dismantled them. We removed the mechanisms from their bodies. What you did back there moved me. I see now that it was wrong for us to use true wild animals, they are too unpredictable and dangerous."

An electronic locator dinged at him and reminded Albert to turn down a long dirt road that was half covered in gravel. The dust the car kicked up nearly clouded all of the windows save for where the windshield wipers ran. "What I need are agents that can fight with us. Reliable agents that can help us protect this country of ours from outside threats. Sending thousands of troops into a location without any inside information is deadly. The government has tried sending in spies but they are always found out eventually. We have tried different electronic devices, robots if you will, to gain intelligence but they all lack that intuition and instinct. They can only record what we tell them to. Without any knowledge about what's going on behind the cameras and microphones, we don't have a full picture."

Edward had only known what their mission statement was and what he was trained to do. So until now, he hadn't seen the full scope of his purpose. "So that is the job I'm supposed to do? I was supposed to go in in place of robots and human spies?"

"In a nutshell, yes. But so much more. Edward you have a gift. Nina has it too. You can sense what is going to happen before anything does. You know most people, from the moment you meet them. Humans generally don't have that ability, we are easily fooled by con artists, thieves and crooks."

"But as I'm part human, do you think that I'm easily conned?"

"Not at all. You, how can I put this... You want to believe that people are inherently good. You believe the lie because you don't want to admit that people are lying to you... Even those close to you."

"Who?"

"Who do you think?"

"Tell me." Ed said, but secretly didn't want to know which of his close friends had been deceiving him.

"Your so called 'mother'."

"Impossible. My mom would never lie to me, she loves me."

"She wants you to think that. She told us everything. Everything that she had been keeping tucked away in her little housewife mind. Edward, do you know how much pain and heart ache you have caused her in just 3 years? She told you she loved you because that's the only way to keep the peace in the household."

"Lying, you're lying again. She... she loves me." He insisted.

"She wanted a pet. Not another son. A plain mindless pet to keep her company during those long hours her husband was at work and her son was at school. And just when she gets used to your little quirks, you suddenly decide that spending time with her is boring. You ran away from home. The ultimate insult to someone that saved your life."

"I didn't run away! I just wanted to..."

"You ran away. Even if it was only for a few hours, the message to her was clear. Being with her all day was beneath you. You returned sure enough, eventually. But when you started changing shape you insisted on leaving her on a daily basis, going to school with Jack, staying out for all hours of the day and night. Another blow to an already fragile, lonely woman."

"That's not fair! You are twisting what happened! She knows I love her!"

"Do you? What have you ever done for her? What was the last nice thing that you did for your mother. Can you remember?"

Edward felt he was getting hot with anger, then self pity. He tried to think what he did for her but could only recall what he asked her to do for him.

Albert continued with a tone of voice that suggested honest friendship, "In any case, the best thing you could ever do for her now is to get her back to her family. The only way the council will let her leave is if you cooperate and work for us. What would Jack do in your place? What would Henry do? How far are you _really_ willing to go for her."

"I will die for her. I would have been dead if it wasn't for her, so it's only right." He found himself saying and this time truly believing it without regret.

"We are not asking you to die for anyone. Not yet." Albert gave a laugh which was meant to make that line a joke, but Edward knew better. Eventually working for the Center would mean his death. Either in service to them or betrayal against them.

"All we are asking is that you work to keep her and people like her safe. Safe from 'the bad guys' overseas. This is what you were meant to do. Not just as one of our own agents but as a decent human being. Protect your country. Protect its citizens and towns. Protect Amystriss, and all those that you care about. - "

"Enough with the pamphlet babble. I've heard it all before. And I accept. Just please, stop talking." Edward fell silent for a long time after that. Once again replaying his memories because he knew that they were going to disappear from him like a dream. He hoped they would let him keep at least some of them.

'I need to remember them. All of them. I can't forget. I won't forget. They can't take that away from me. If they want me to stay with them, they have to let me have my memories. At least... some of them...' He thought to himself. Playing back the last 3 years, ignoring the troubled times in his old neighborhood, the verbal abuse and taunting from strangers. He skipped right over them as if fast forwarding past commercials. Getting to the good bits of the movie, he watched those scenes over and over. Climbing trees and houses to retrieve lost toys for the kids. Reading a good book by the window leaning up against Dan the man. The road trips the family took, letting the boys run wild for the day and called back to the campsite with marshmallows for smores waiting. Remembering the joyous times he had playing with Jack everywhere they went. Recalling his parents and the love that they gave without end, and he loved them back even more so.

Edward was vaguely aware that there were more and more cars joining their own on the dusty road. The sun started to lighten up the sky a little, warming up the cold night. Turning his head at an extreme angle to see out of the slats in the bars, he could see that there were several buildings in the distance ahead that they were driving towards. Their car reached the apex of a hill and on the other side of it he could see the buildings clearer over the dust clouds the previous vehicles left hovering over the road. He did not recognize the buildings, but saw that there was a line of trucks about a mile ahead of their own car that were already pulling into that large area.

"We're almost there. I'm going to tell them that you're willing to play ball with us so they don't mistreat you. Do not screw up."

Edward said he would behave.

Albert grunted in approval as they reached the building lots. He drove further into the area then everyone else, parking his huge black car almost on top of the front stoop of a very large and ornate old house that had seen better days.

Edward muttered, 'handicap parking' under his breath when Albert had gotten out. He dared not say it to his face. The kennel was unbuckled and pulled through to the other side of the car and taken up the front stairs and into the huge ramshackled house. Already there were plastic tables being set up and equipment being unpacked. Lights went on everywhere in the house and a few bulbs exploded somewhere on the 2nd level and the back room.

"I guess it had been a bit longer then I thought. But still, it should do." Albert said putting his hands to his hips.

The main house appeared to have once been a beautiful Victorian styled house that was apparently bought by the Center when it first formed. It had been painted over with white at one time because in some places, the wallpaper separated from the wooden walls and revealed a gaudy flower pattern underneath.

"Should have brought some cleaning supplies." Albert then laughed, "Or a sledgehammer."

Some other men chuckled along with their boss and the ones that weren't setting up shop were looking in rooms to find something to clean up the house.

"Kiss ass's." Albert said thumbing at the eager younger guys that were dusting cobwebs from the 12-14 foot high ceilings. "They must think we are going to operate on the ceiling. Someone should tell them that it's all in the basement of the other building." Albert said quietly, then set Edward's cage down on a table he had waved over. He leaned over and spoke to Ed directly. "Keep an eye on them. Make sure they scrub from stem to stern. If you can do that from a kennel I will buy you a happy meal."

Edward just looked at him and let the big guy amuse himself. He wasn't going to be drawn into some crazy game of his. He had forgotten how unstable Albert was. When happy, mad, or sad he was just plain unpredictable. It was better to just let him do his thing and not get in the way. Usually he would move on with something else anyway, completely forgetting the pointless drills and orders he randomly shouted out.

Edward watched the few people clean that filthy place up to near sparkling in almost no time flat.

"Looks good. Let's go." Albert said when he returned into the room for only a few seconds.

The cleaners, still holding mop buckets, looked at each other for a moment then dropped the cleaning supplies on the floor and made a big show of picking up some heavy equipment from the temporary tables and carried them out the door grumbling at their boss.

Albert apparently loved carrying Edward's kennel around himself, even though they brought a wheeled cart with them in one of the trucks, specifically for hauling the kennel. It easily weighed 60 pounds with Edward inside, but you couldn't tell it the way Albert swung it effortlessly on down the porch stairs.

They slowly headed towards a huge area that was once a lawn that had hints of its former extravagance strewn about here and there. A few statues of angels and huge stone bird baths were placed along winding dirt and sandy paths. There wasn't much greenery anywhere, but it was easy to imagine how lush it once was. Now, the majority of the land was choked with sand that had blown in with dry dirt that supported only the hardiest of plant life.

"I used to live in these two houses, all this is my land." Albert said, pointing far out to a small shack on the outer edge of the lot. "And yes, we live in a dump." He laughed lightly at the poor condition.

"What?"

"Over there, I was practically born in that small wooden house my Dad built. I inherited it when he died. When my business became successful, I had that big 2 1/2 story house commissioned for us. At first though, my wife and I lived in the small house for only 6 years... with our daughter."

Albert walked on a path that lead close to the shack, still carrying Edward's kennel. He stopped and faced something he hated. All Edward could see was the remnants of a small barn a few hundred feet away. It was leaning drastically to one side and charred black on the other. Some of the support beams had fallen in but not from old age or the weather. Liquor bottles glinted in the lamp post light, half buried in sand.

Albert glared at the barn and muttered all manner of curses at it. He then seemed very sad and put Edward's kennel down on the ground for a moment. There was nothing but unforgotten despair mingled with loathing for the damned barn that sat quietly at the other end of the lot. Edward looked up when the big man finally spoke.

"When I found her... she was already gone. I shot that damned horse then and there. Pulled the coyote rifle right from that wall and shot it between the eyes." He said, then picked the kennel back up and walked in silence for awhile. Edward could hear his breath start and stop with barely audible sobs in-between. "She was only 6 and a half years old. She wanted to feed the horses. My little girl..."

"I'm sorry." Edward said in commiseration.

"Her life was too short. She deserved to grow up, make friends, have her first kiss with some little germ she calls 'my man'. She should have had a long happy life. That's why I did it... that's why I gave up everything. Lillie said I was crazy. We had lost her once and she didn't want to loose our daughter again. She left me. She is now somewhere off in Texas, I think. She doesn't write or call anymore... she doesn't do anything anymore. But she was the one to always say, 'happy doesn't have to have an ending.' And I believed her. I sold my company and took every last dime from it and gave it to the Center. It wasn't called that in the beginning you know... we had to call it something more dignified then 'Kentucky Technologies'. Anyway, they promised big things in return for funding their research but I could tell that they were too disjointed. I had to keep them in line and get them organized. I became their boss by necessity. I didn't want to be at first, but it was apparent that they would squander my hard earned money unless I kept an eye on them." He stopped walking when they got to a bench. He set down the kennel facing outward to the barn. They were closer now and he could now see that it had been set on fire years ago. Most likely right after the accident.

Albert sat very quiet for a while just staring at the barn. Edward could see a little further into Albert's mind. He acted crazy because the grief probably sent him over the edge. Ed could see how a child's death could cause such a mental and emotional break in a parent. So intense, that would make them want to do anything just to get their kid back. Edward knew how Albert must be feeling because he himself was doing what he could for his adoptive family. They both would sometimes push everyone away so they wouldn't get to know them as a friend. Albert stayed just close enough to people because he was also very lonely. The changes in his mood were most likely him trying to decide how he wants to deal with being alive at that time. Make light of it, ignore it, hate it, love it, he went back and forth because he couldn't decide how to live. One thing for sure is that he was not afraid of the future so long as it was with his little girl again. Anything could be faced alongside a loved one.

"But... that girl that they created for me. She wasn't her. She only looked like her." Albert said softly. His hands folded over each other and Ed could see that he was stroking a small plastic barrette. It had glitter and fake jewels glued to it. A few of the bits of glitter fell to the sandy ground and caught the light now and again.

"It's ok." Edward said facing Albert.

"Shut up. It's not. It will never be ok." Albert said quietly, trying to sound angry but was clearly sad. Albert stood up abruptly and paced back and forth in front of the bench and Ed's kennel. All the while staring down the leaning barn.

"Why is it still standing?" He said and spat on the ground. "That was decades ago. Countless dust devils, tornadoes and sand storms ago. Why is it _still standing??"_

A few men carrying some boxes happened to be walking by. One was smoking a cigarette and laughing with the other man.

"Drop that shit and get your ass over here right now!" Albert shouted at them.

"Yes Sir!" They did so and marched over, the one with the cigarette flung it away and saluted.

"Where's your lighter?"

"Sir? Oh umm right here, Sir." He said and produced a lighter with a naked girl on it, he handed it over.

Albert was disgusted by the picture and returned it to the man. "Set fire to that barn and don't leave it until it is nothing but a smear on the dirt, got it?"

"Err yes Sir." They said looking at each other and then at the barn.

"Now!" Albert shouted at them again and kicked one in the rear to get him going. They ran over and as one cleared away the metal junk that was inside of the barn and around it, the other gathered up some grass to start the fire with.

Edward could hear them talk about this being the craziest thing Albert has ordered yet. Albert picked up Edward's kennel and waited until he saw a bright fire lick the sides of the barn door before moving. Just before they reached the other building, Edward heard the men talk about mutiny.

Edward was taken inside and down the stairs to a large white room that had obviously been sealed up for years because it was not in disrepair. It was still clean and virtually sterile. The gleaming white walls reminded Ed of the Center in its heyday.

While the men outside spoke of mutiny, the ones inside were talking about the promise of success for them. From Ed's vantage point, he could tell that Albert gave a look to each person standing there and they reacted in a peculiar way to it. They stopped what they had been doing, glanced down at Edward and then gave a slight nod at Albert.

Edward thought it was Albert's way of telling them to be nice to him but it was something else entirely.

"You must be tired of this metal box, eh kitty?" A lab technician said as if talking to a small kid.

"Immensely. It's a metal can in the desert." He looked up through the bars at the dumbass that asked the question. The man went over to a wide assortment of tools of some sort behind him, and produced a syringe. He stood beside Albert.

"Edward. I still believe you when you say you want to cooperate. But, if you were in my shoes you would do the same thing as a precaution. This won't hurt, I promise." Albert said as he took the syringe from the technician. "Do it for Janet?"

Edward sat down in front of the door. He nodded and said, "For _Mom_."

Albert unlocked the door and held out his hand for Edward's arm. Edward studied Albert's eyes and said, "Will you keep your promise? Not about the needle, do you promise Mom's freedom? I stay, she goes home?"

"Yes. We have a deal." Albert turned around and addressed the entire room. "No one is to lay a finger on Janet Johnson without my permission. Understand?"

The room echoed a resonating 'Yes Sir' back again. Albert grinned and held out his right hand to shake Edward's. When Edward produced his, Albert firmly grabbed Ed's whole forearm in his wide hand and stuck the needle deep into Ed's arm.

" _Wha...?_ " Edward asked as he slumped to the ground.

"Sweet dreams." Albert said and pet Edward's slumbering body.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Edward barely heard the last thing Albert said, and found it odd that he actually did dream. It didn't feel like suppressed memories at all. He was fairly aware that it was a dream however, and moved around in it with awe. He always wondered what dreams were like, if they followed a pattern or just went from one thought to the next.

He smiled at the clouds in the sky as they changed colors with a beautiful song that filled the air all around him. He couldn't identify any of the instruments used, if there were any. It was almost like a million people and animals humming and singing. A thousand invisible exotic birds were chirping the same harmonious notes simultaneously as the deep roars of other animals producing the bass. All mixed together perfectly and without end or even apparent beginning. It was as if it was always there. The high flitting notes of the ambient song made the light colorful clouds swirl and bubble in joy while the deeper notes made the clouds move slowly down towards the earth. The lower the notes, the darker and lower the clouds became. But soon, the light joyful notes sent them soaring higher into the sky and churning with brilliant shades of light blues and purple hues. The rocks he walked on were soft to the touch as if covered in goose down feathers. The lands seemed to end at mountains in the distance all around him. He wondered if that was the edge of his world.

Edward looked down at his feet and saw that they were his human feet again. He hadn't remembered changing shape, but figured he must have at some point. He looked at his hands and they were normal human hands, no claws at all. 'So this is what it feels like to have regular fingernails. This is so weird. I wonder why they turn white after they leave the skin... My old black claws are better, they can be tucked away, these don't move at all. These fingernails are so brittle, I doubt they could even hold me up in a tree, no wonder human's have such difficulty climbing. They bend so easily, ow... ok, I'll stop messing with them.' he thought as he looked them over.

He also saw that he had human feet as well. His old feet only had 4 small toes with claws at the end but now, he had an extra big toe on each foot and those same useless nails at the ends. "Would you look at that? Oh that feels so weird to have 5 toes on these feet. The big one is pretty neat though. My shoes will fit better with this big bad boy in them. No more stuffing tissues inside my shoes. Makes it a bit hard to walk though... I'll just have to get used to it." He looked behind himself and found that he had no tail anymore. "Oh cool! No tail! I am a full fledged human! I wish I could see if my eyes are still slit... they might not be, since the rest of me is human." He quickly examined the rest of his lanky body and found no trace of his feline self. No stubble from whiskers, no claws, no tail, even his teeth were dull and full, not sharp and pointed. The hair on his head felt thicker and more coarse then his old furry head, and, no stripes. His whole head sported thick uniform black wavy hair.

"I'm human." he breathed. "I really am human. I am just like everyone else." he said with a weakening grin. A small part of him was disappointed by that fact.

He noticed his left hand seemed to have been stuck in some thick paste, making it hard for him to move his fingers. But the paste was invisible to him. He wiggled his right hand and fingers and they moved fine. Then he tried moving his left and the fingers stuck together and moved but only slowly and painfully. He ignored it and let it be. He stuck the hand in his pocket and strolled down the lane.

All around him were vibrant green grass's and beautiful flowers. He knelt down to smell them and found that they had such a strong scent to him that almost burned his nose, so he shrugged at them and left in search of something else to do. He heard some water lapping a beach and some sounds of people laughing so he sought out the clearer noises. He walked down to a pond where there were over a dozen or so kids all yelling and splashing each other and having a good time. He did not wish to intrude on the scene so he sat quietly at the edge of the pond and watched them wistfully. The waves caused by the children playing seemed to crash all around him, but never got him wet. An impossible feat for water, but this was 'just a dream' he told himself.

The boys and girls saw him and called out for him to come and join them.

"Hey! Kid! Come on over here!"

"Yeah come on! Seven says that there are cool fish down there!"

"Seven?" Edward asked.

"Yeah! I'm Seven, that's Four and Eight over there, they're my best buddies." A small boy shouted over to Edward. The boy then pointed at the other kids and proceeded to name them all off. "… and Nine and Six are over there with Twelve and Thirteen playing with the red Frisbee."

"Umm... I like Frisbee's.." Edward got to his feet but stayed out of the water. He saw that nearly all of the kids were wading in the deepish water and he gradually became unconcerned about his own inability to swim. He was just about to step into the water when he heard an angry call.

"He can't come in here!" A boy shouted at the other playing kids. He seemed older then the others but not by very much, however, he was not as old as Edward.

"Why not? He's just like us, he looks like he wants to play with us!" They said back to the boy.

Edward nodded at what the other kids were saying, feeling very much like joining in. It could be incredibly fun to frolic with these youngsters.

"Shut up! I said he can't come in here! He's not ready!" The boy shouted again and threw a large rock at Edward trying to drive him away.

"I don't understand... why can't I play?" Edward found himself saying. "Who are you?"

The other kids soon fell silent, and watched Edward in misery once they figured out what the boy was talking about, why Ed should not be invited. "Don't you get it?!" The boy shouted angrily now.

"No... I..." Ed stammered.

"I'm Fourteen!" The boy cried again, sounding very distraught as well as angry.

"I'm also 14 years old..." Edward called back.

"You idiot! You can't come in here because you're Fifteen! You are still alive! It should have been me!" Fourteen shouted back and threw another stone in his direction, falling short and landing in the shallows.

"Alive? ... But, aren't you guys alive too?" Edward said looking at all of the kids in the pond. He suddenly realized that every one of these kids represents the experiments that came before him. The ones that failed and died.

The song that played over the land became deeper in tone and therefore the clouds ebbed and swayed as they drooped closer to the ground. Swirling fast and near black as they descended to the earth. All along the horizon tornadoes were forming and joining each other in a mass of swirling torrents.

The kids became very fearful of the sky and swam away from Edward, the conductor of that world. Ed fell to his hands and knees and then saw that they were now his cat paws again. "What happened to my body? I thought I wouldn't shift again." He picked up his left paw and his fingers worked just fine now. He felt a trailing pain all along his back and he was shocked to find his tail still missing. Just completely missing. "but... I changed, it should be there!" he said looking around himself. He put it behind himself because there were more earth shattering things happening.

"What's going on?" He shouted to the kids but all but Fourteen was left.

"Tell me... are there others? Are you the last of us?" Fourteen said quietly but Ed could hear the words clearly, as if Fourteen was right next to him. "Are you the last one?"

"I... don't know... I can't remember!"

"Damn it, you have to! Are there others like us?!" Fourteen shouted again.

"Yes! There is another!" Edward suddenly remembered Nina's smiling face.

Fourteen smiled in a sad but caring way. With great pity in his eyes, he said to Edward, "Then... we will meet again." and disappeared before his eyes. Edward began to run and leap to where he had seen the boy, convinced Fourteen was drowning. He tried and tried again to jump into the water but each time he leaped forward, the water receded rapidly before him. The whole pond, nearly as big as a lake once, was vanishing quickly from the beach, getting smaller and smaller, driven away by Edward's pursuing feet. Edward was unable to touch even a drop of the water before it was absorbed by large dry cracks in the ground. Sand blew in from the vicious storms closing in all around him.

The music was thundering and near deafening, roars and growling wind destroyed the lands as they closed in. He dug furiously at the dry earth but the ground was as heavy and thick as lead. He clawed at it desperately and called out to the other kids. By this time the menacing clouds were nearly touching the ground when he heard a clear voice behind him.

"Stop." It said.

"I can't! They need me!" He reached into one of the cracks and clawed up a faceted pebble made of multicolored glittering sand.

"You can't help them. It's ok, they are happy now." The voice said in a soothing tone that sent the clouds higher and higher. Soon the clouds and songs were dancing high in the air. The ground he was standing on grew thick grass and small blue flowers. Interweaving all around him and sprouting up from his feet, spreading out, growing a meadow.

"Stand up straight. On your own two feet." He heard the voice say behind him.

"I can't, you see... umm, I'm a cat..." But even as he said that he looked down to see his pale human chimera hands splayed out ahead of him. He hung his head and saw his legs kneeling on the ground and his striped tail swishing about behind him. 'I'm me again.' he grinned, surprising himself to find how happy he was to be in his old skin.

He got to his bare 4 toed feet and turned around to face the owner of the voice. He turned around again. There was no one there.

"I can't see you, where are you?"

"I'm here. But, I'm not." The voice explained kindly.

"What's happening? I keep changing shape but I don't feel the shifts at all. And now..." he gazed downward. "Why do my feet keep falling asleep? I can move them one minute then the next they feel heavy and sticky." As he spoke he made sure that both of his hands were ok now. The fingers moved with ease but his pale feet were totally numb. He tried to stand on one leg at a time in an attempt to wake them up. 'My weight is still being supported by them but it is almost as if... as if...' he thought.

Edward gasped.

"You're right." The voice said sympathetically.

"They aren't really there." Edward said staring at his feet.

"I'm sorry." The voice said softly.

Edward sat down on the ground and watched his limbs carefully. Then pulled his tail around in front so he could watch that too. He moved every limb back and forth, rubbing the joints and muscles to maintain awareness of every part of himself. He looked up to a tall statue of an angel nearby and decided the kind voice best fit it then any of the other strange things in that imaginary world. Sure enough, his feet felt better as he changed his shape into a feline once again.

He spoke to the statue, "They are taking my right hand off now... aren't they." He said as he tried to move the digits on that paw. It was numb and heavy. He had a faint smell of iron and knew it must be blood, though he could not see any amount of blood on his fur. He turned his paw around with his other and watched it.

"I can still see it, but I know... it's gone. They... took it."

"Yes."

"But it will be back?" Edward looked up hopefully to the statue.

"Yes."

"Why are they doing this?" His breaths became short and tears fell.

"They want to understand. You know that."

"Yeah, but... why are they doing this... to me?" Edward cried as he watched his form elongate once again and all of his limbs return to his old human limbs. He hunched over and drew his weak knees close to his bare chest and rocked back and forth. "Why me?" He whimpered and felt so alone he could barely take it.

He felt a warmth come over him and imagined that the voice was hugging him from behind. Enfolding around him and holding him in a loving embrace. His body felt better and he could breath easier. He clenched his eyes shut tight because he was afraid if he had seen the voice that it would disappear like the kids did, and he would be truly alone in that world. He rocked back and forth for a while but it gradually became a softer, happier movement. He swayed with the warm voice and loosened his grip on his knees and laid down on his side. For a long time he laid there and felt the warmth all around him. The voice seemed to be humming now. A song that he imagined would have made the clouds dance in a romantic waltz in the sky. He wanted desperately to see the voice but refused to look. He felt unworthy to look upon the voice of the stone angel, and so kept his eyes closed out of respect.

He felt his head being stroked and tried to purr in appreciation but found his throat became tight. He tried again and his purr sounded more like a raspy growl. For fear that this would give the wrong impression to the voice, he stopped trying to purr and said "Thank you, very much." instead. The warmth seemed to fade a bit and it became chilly. A breeze brushed away a few stray hairs from his forehead and he smiled. The voice had left, but that was ok. He felt better now.

He opened up his eyes a little and the view before him was strange, dim, and blurry. He saw a tall, large bluish green rectangle off to his left side and a series of small whitish circles moving in rough lines from the left side towards the right of the bluish rectangle with haste. His vision cleared a bit as he now saw a fish tank with an aquatic background and bubbles filtering up through it to the top. There were only 2 fish in the huge tank, but there was insufficient room for either to swim as they were rather large catfish.

He heard a sound above his head and looked up to see what it was. He was laying curled up on his left side and tilted his head around slowly to view the area more clearly. It was cluttered with books and folders next to one wall and computers on the other. He was laying on a very soft suede couch under a blanket. He checked to see what form he was in, and was glad it was his old human form, not that full human one, his own perfect mix. He moved in the blanket a little and grinned at the familiar sight of his black clawed hands as they pulled his long tail around. He suddenly forgot why he was happy to see his whole body again.

"And three, two, one." A different deeper voice said and then a bell chimed. It spoke up louder, "Good morning. How are you doing today?"

"I'm... umm good?"

"Good good, now, I'm sorry, I have forgotten your name, what is it again?"

"Oh umm... Fii... uhh... fiften Five ten."

"That's right. Fifteen, thank you my son. You must be hungry, how do you like your fish?"

"Ummm... almost raw?" The boy watched the two large catfish swim around each other in the blue tank.

"Excellent choice, I'll have the cook prepare one for you right away."

"Hey umm, how... how did I get here?"

"Oh, don't you remember? You hit your head on the ground when your colleague accidentally bumped into you, making you fall down a flight of stairs. Don't blame him, it was an accident after all. We've been here the whole time, taking turns keeping a close eye on you, making sure you were ok."

"Thanks, yeah, I remember now, I was bending over to pick something up and he bumped into me. I lost my balance and fell. I think I hurt my hands and feet..." he rubbed his wrists and looked at his bare feet under the covers.

"Yup, that's what happened. How do you feel now? Are the bumps and sores all gone?"

"I... think so... thanks Doc."

"My pleasure. My pleasure, boy. Now you better get back to your station before your boss has a fit! You mentioned earlier that you are scheduled for your weekly tests. We will take it slow then move on up to the physical activities, alright?"

Wobbling slightly, he stood up from the couch and looked around himself, gathering up his new looking laced shoes and a blue work-shirt with his name printed in black on the front; _FIFTEEN_. He was embarrassed to see that someone had already changed his pants while he was out, but could not remember what he was wearing before these ill fitting pants. He saw the expectant face of the doctor and remembered that he had tasks to do, "Right... yeah. Thanks again! Umm... where are the tests held at... from here?"

"Right down that hall and up the stairs to the left."

"Okay, thank you!" He said as he pulled his shirt and shoes on and left the office with a wave/salute.

Moments later, a sliding door opened in the office and a large man stepped out.

"I think he's ok. But you better get back to retraining him before he wonders about the time lost." the doctor said.

"No problem. Oh and here," he tossed him a few extra hundred, "for the rush job."

"Thank you Albert, and good luck with this one, hope he's worth all the trouble!"

Albert nodded, "Well, you know as well as I do that it would have been easier to just replace his brain with a new blank slate, one that would follow orders. But the body and brain of the working chimeras had to grow in unison or else both would die. We can't just swap out his brain with a human's, when he changes into a cat, the brain would just explode out of the skull. Wasn't pretty the last time, if you recall."

"Yes, most unfortunate." The doctor grimaced at the memory. "It would have been so much faster, and cheaper for you guys. Still, this 'wash' should hold, so long as you keep him busy. Child assassins can be so hard to deal with, so I thank you for the pre-op talk you had with him earlier. His mind was more willing to go along with us."

"Not a problem, see ya, Dr. Furter. Oh and sorry about the multiple washings you had to do to the mother. Can't explain how she keeps popping back to reality."

"Well you know, she's a mother who loves her children, she feels the need to stay awake. But, I assure you, that the job is done. She will be ready for the 'big show'." Dr. Furter said while cleaning his spectacles off with his tie. "Take care of them, Albert."

"We won't screw up this time. I know that he is capable of so much more then what he's done for the past 3 years. The others are mad that he hasn't killed anyone in all that time. Secretly, I'm not really surprised. It will take some work but we will get him ready in time." He said confidently, glancing at the humming cameras, and gave a brief wave to the doctor before he left.

Albert hummed a little tune as he followed the boy's path down the hall and up the stairs, passing a room on the way where a slumbering Janet was under hidden guard. He grinned as he saw that the boy had passed her and didn't even know who she was. He stopped in his tracks and went back to the room.

"Better keep this door shut, we don't want to confuse the boy. Oh and have the cook fry up the other catfish for the mother."

"Yes Sir." The guard said and closed the door after Albert left.

Janet stirred a bit in her sleep, and mumbled something about clouds.

 

 


	21. "Such Animals. Not You Dear, Them."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A well needed rest.

Chapter21 "Such animals. Not you dear, them."

 

 

 

"Before we get to your physical training there's some things I'd like to go over with you, Fifteen."

"Um yeah, sure." The boy said.

"First we're going to start with some word association. Very simple. When I say a word, you tell me the very first thing that comes to your mind. Okay?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, first word: Sun."

"Shine."

"Video." The man said crossing off the words as they went.

"Shows." Fifteen said.

"Lost."

"Jack."

"Jack?" The man inquired with a hesitant voice.

"Rabbit." He said simply.

The man nodded and thought the boy said that because there was a character named Jack in the recently aired TV show titled 'Lost'. He then continued, "Fight."

"Honor." The boy said, gauging the doctor's reaction.

"Death."

"Freedom." Fifteen said looking out of the small window that resembled a porthole.

After a half hour of the word game they proceeded to show him ink blots and puzzles. Followed by 2 hours of introducing seemingly random items to him and asking what he thought when he saw them. For the most part they listened to Fifteen go on and on about how each could be used as a weapon, but some he talked about their lack of any significance on the battle field. The different scents that were emanating from some of the objects puzzled him immensely, but he couldn't figure out why. It was as if the objects were recognizable not by sight but only by smell. After a few moments of hesitation he studied them and then went on to the next. Off to the side he could hear the very faint whirr of tiny motors in the walls. He scanned the area where the sounds were coming from and smirked at the lenses zooming in and focusing on every movement he made.

"Are you about done with him?" Albert walked in and stared at the men with their green wooden clipboards.

"Yes Sir. We are now." They said getting to their feet. Fifteen rose too and faced Albert, awaiting orders.

"Good, because they are waiting for him outside. Come on Fifteen."

"Sir." He said and followed dutifully behind the large man, happy to be done with the tedious tests.

"Since we couldn't find any volunteers to spar with you, I'll let you pick your first opponent. Feel free to choose anyone and kick their ass." Albert said as everyone now tried to hide behind their chores.

Fifteen strode around the grounds and everyone he glanced at was avoiding eye contact or plain ran away. Secretly, he thought it was hilarious. No one had ever run from him before. The boy was only 4 ft 11, and less then 40 pounds. He sized up some of the men and even a few women, briefly flaunting with the idea of wrestling them around in the dust and sand. He winked at some of the more buxom ladies and moved on to the next.

"Any day now." Albert shouted across the grounds to him.

The boy waved a hand over his head and strode up to one of the men that was now sifting through the fresh black ash of the barn. The 20 something didn't see or hear him coming and was startled when the boy placed his hand on his shoulder.

"You."

"Me what?" The man spun around. He immediately bent over slightly as a way of bowing respectfully at Fifteen.

The boy smirked up at the man and asked, "What's your name?"

"Marley." he said, wondering why Fifteen was outside without restraints.

"Marley? And last name?"

"Diz. Marley Diz."

"Are you named after Bob Marley or someone else?"

"Possibly, Sir. Um, did you need me for something?"

"Yeah, we're only going to be doing a little play fighting. Sparring match. The sand is more fine grain for falls over there." Fifteen said and patted him on the back, "This one!" he called over to Albert. Then said under his breath as they walked to the clearing, "I'll go easy on you if you go easy on me."

Marley took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his brow of sweat from working with hot coals from the incinerated barn. "Don't worry about me," Marley was somewhat insulted of this kid 'going easy' on him. He didn't believe all the hoopla over the runt now that he saw how little Fifteen's human form was. Hardly formidable against his own tall muscular physique. "I can take whatever you got."

"Suit yourself." Fifteen jogged ahead and stretched his legs, back, and arms and waved him over. He decided to try out some moves he knew were too rough for some. He picked this man because this Mr. Diz seemed more agile then the others outside. Working outside in the sun, he still had energy to spare and would be a good warm up for the day's matches.

Marley crouched down into a kind of wrestler's pose and Fifteen took a running leap at him, landing his hands square on the man's chest and knocking him backwards onto the ground. Marley had to admit it was like being hit with a 40 lb cannon ball. The boy did a flip over Marley's head and landed on his feet facing the other way. He spun around and strode back to him and held out his hand to help Marley up.

"Good one. Just try it again, runt." Marley whipped his legs over his head and did a handstand for a second. He then did a move that Fifteen had never seen before. A series of one handed stands and full bodied twists, barely touching the ground. Suddenly the man had pinned the boy to the ground with a knee on his chest and honked his nose playfully. "Ever break dance before kid?" Marley smirked at the boy.

"Is that what that was? Looks cool! Lemme try it." He said as Marley let him back up. After about 10 minutes of their mirrored aerial flips and moves, Albert came back around the building. "Sorry Dude, fun's over." Fifteen said and swiftly hit Marley with the tips of his fingers on the base of his neck just above the collar bones. As Marley clutched his neck, Fifteen hit his sternum and Marley went down hard on his side, curling up and gasping. The boy whispered conspiratorially to Marley, "Stay down."

Marley turned over and got to his hands and knees. Spitting up a few drops of blood, he wiped his mouth and got to his feet, facing the boy again with a mix of confusion and betrayal.

"Should have stayed down." Fifteen growled and ran around behind him. Swiping his left leg under Marley's left, he tripped him up so that he fell again to his side. Fifteen was on him in a flash and grabbed the man's head and pinned it to the ground with another hand around his throat. His sharp nails cut pinholes into Marley's neck as Albert walked over, clapping heartily in approval.

"Very good, Fifteen. Let him up." He said waving his hand upwards.

Marley was slower getting to his feet this time, and held onto his neck to check and see if it was still intact. The blood smeared onto his shaking fingers and he stared wild eyed at the small boy that was walking casually away, following Albert like a dog.

"I could have finished him off for you." Fifteen said proudly with a sadistic gleam in his eye.

"Don't bother. It's just a sparring match. Take a breather and get some water. We will go again with a better opponent."

"Yes Sir." Fifteen said happily. Then when Albert had walked away, he tried to conceal his shame under a pretentious smile.

The whole rest of that Thursday evening until dusk, Fifteen had sparred and won nearly every match, learning something new in how his various opponents fought. He even tried a few of the flips and spins that Marley had shown him before, but he couldn't get his tail out of the way fast enough for some of the unique moves. He was annoyed when some of his sparring partners would grab at his tail and yank it hard to throw him off balance. He cried foul and then went in for the kill shot faster with them. Albert cheered louder for Fifteen's more voracious attacks to the main arteries. Always a quarter inch shy of the vein, they were left dazed, and some, left bleeding. No permanent physical marks were made to either fighter due to Fifteen's careful planning and aim. They all had learned something new in each fight, observers and fighters alike. He almost prided himself on mixing up the moves and tailor making each fight for the _benefit_ of the opponent. He did not want to win every fight by taking advantage of the other person's weaknesses, he considered it as being ill-mannered. Also the fights wouldn't last very long if he had. Instantly, he would know how to take them down, and like playing chess, he sometimes counted the moves necessary for each win. It also helped that humans were as heavy as they looked, and always assumed that the boy was likewise. Throwing themselves off balance when they overreached or anticipated more weight then what was there. The humans had more weight to throw around, but that only meant that it takes them more time and energy to throw that weight around. Stunned at his speed and agility, the men did not stand a chance.

The dinner bell rang and everyone went to the main house to eat and recoup. Several of his opponents sat at what Albert dubbed the 'kiddy table' which no doubt infuriated them. All throughout the meal, they muttered unpleasantries towards Albert and the boy especially.

Fifteen heard all of it above the din, and hung his head. He toyed around with his food and gazed around to see who he thought was missing. He couldn't quite place who all might be gone, but he knew not everyone was seated in the huge dining hall.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Ok Jack, we are getting closer to your aunt Ana's house. Can you try waking him up again?"

"We've been trying for the past 14 hours. I don't think he's in there anymore."

The dog sniffed with great interest out of the opening in the window and wagged his tail. Occasionally shifting his position to look out of the rear window of the truck at the camper that creaked as they went down the poorly paved side streets.

Henry frowned as he ruffled the dog's head. The dog grinned happily up at him but quickly went back to panting out of the rear window.

"All we can do is hope that he's still in there."

Jack turned the dog's head to face his own. He looked deep into the brown eyes and tried to entice a response, "Dustin... Dustin! Come out come out where ever you are!"

The dog licked his nose.

"If you can hear me, make some kind of movement. Say something... Blink 3 times in a row."

The dog just stared blankly back at Jack and then looked past him at the houses and street where a couple was walking their huge mastiff. He snuffed loudly at the other dog as they passed by, then settled back down in his seat. Jack gave up trying to communicate and scratched behind the dog's ears.

"How are ya feeling Jack? Still getting those weird pains from this morning?"

"No, I think they've stopped. It wasn't like anything I've felt before... except maybe once awhile back..."

"When did they happen before?"

"Well, it kinda felt like the days after we cut off Ed's tail. The next few times he changed and re-grew it back, I felt weird. Like drained. It's really hard to explain but that's how I felt earlier today."

"More then just a couple of times though, seemed like it was every hour. Think it might be anxiety attacks?"

"Maybe. But I would have had those constantly for the past few days right? Being hunted down like animals in our own town. This whole thing has been crazy." Jack looked out the window and thought about it for a bit. "So you think... maybe they are connected?"

"What's connected?"

"The incidents. Like what if I can... I dunno, feel what Ed's going through?"

"How?"

"I don't know, I just have this feeling like, he's been hurt. I thing they hurt him several times today, and somehow I felt it while it was happening." Jack held onto his chest over his heart.

Henry glanced at Jack while still driving, "When they shot the tip of his tail off, when you both were in the river, did you get that same sensation then?"

"No... but that feeling might have been covered up with my urge to puke at the sight of it." he held up his hand as if he was still holding the bloodied tail tip.

"I'm sorry I brought it up, I'm only trying to understand."

"It's ok, I wish I could tell you what it was, but... all I can say for sure is that I think that Ed was hurt very badly this morning. Several times... Some kind of psychic connection or intuition, I don't know." Jack pet the dog's head while he stared out the window. "What I don't understand is why I'm not feeling anything for Mom."

"That's a good thing right? I mean, if you don't sense her then at least she's alright." Henry said quietly, getting off of the main road through town and entering the business district. "I don't doubt your feelings, I'm only saying that we shouldn't give up hope for either of them." He paused as he studied the street signs and tried to remember which way to go from the road they came in on. "If you are psychic then the next time you feel something, try to hone in on the signal. We can use you as a human compass." He tousled Jack's hair. "Pain let's us know we're still alive."

"You stole that from a movie."

"So what if I did, it's still a good line." Henry smiled and turned down a long road headed uphill. Soon, it was apparent that Henry had to take the long way there because of construction on the road ahead. He cursed and went around to the more familiar streets leading to the house. "In the morning we will try a different address. How many of Jen's letters did we get through today?"

Jack picked up the small stack and flipped them over and muttered, "We did 2 of the 6." He said and tossed the 2 envelopes behind their seat.

"We spent too much time at Kitticus woods." Henry thumped the wheel.

"But if we didn't search it all we would have had to return there. No, you're right from the start. To go methodically and not radically." Jack said folding up the 3 state maps they had bought. The 2 state maps they had passed through that day were also tossed behind the seat. The third map was placed on the dashboard.

"Of course Dan helped out a whole lot in there, he could run ahead and scan the whole area a heck of a lot faster then both of us combined. Got a good nose on him." Henry said smiling at the dog.

"Man this brings back a lot of memories." Jack said gazing out of the window at the familiar neighborhood.

"Some damn good times that's for sure. I remember your uncle Timothy and I would go target practicing down that street there beyond the woods. Nice old bridge over a dried up river bed. He had reduced some of the rails to splinters with his .45 handgun. I just put dimples in 'em with my .22." Henry chuckled. "Course we did other dumb kid stuff back then, bad decision making is one of my many skills." he shined his nails on his shirt with pride.

Henry's sister-in-law, Ana Ng lived nearly 40 minutes away from their old house so they visited fairly frequently back in the day. Jack remembered the neighborhood's nooks and crannies better then Ana's house. Ana had lived in that house since she and Henry's brother Timothy were married, and after Timothy's death she continued to live there because she couldn't bear to part from it. Too many fond memories. The sun had set hours ago but Henry could still see his sister-in-law sitting on the porch waiting for them.

"Take it around back, I had the boys move the fence for it." She said approaching the truck and trailer that pulled up.

Henry nodded and smiled as Ana led them across her well manicured lawn into the backyard which resembled a jungle more then anything. Concrete and clay walls lined the back end of the yard, concealing a shining steel empty bottle collector. The bottles were then cleaned and continually built into that concrete wall in an artistic way. Jack could imagine how the sun's rays would play on the bottles during the daylight hours because the simple backyard light was enough to send warped waves of green and blue colored light all over the fence line.

"Whoa Dad, welcome to the jungle." Jack said under his breath at the exotic set up. One large wire sculptured ant sat next to a sign indicating an abnormal vegetable garden, 'Cabbage town'. Sporting fruits and veggies that you don't see day to day. Jack couldn't help but gawk at all of the random sculptures, fountains and plants as Henry gingerly inched his way past them.

Henry was grateful for the guide because there was just enough room for both vehicles in-between huge ferns and exotic flowering plants on all sides. They carefully opened up their doors and got out making sure not to knock over the stone figures.

"Like them? I had them imported from Taiwan." She had her hands to her hips and smiled proudly at them.

"Ana." Henry said warmly and went around the front of the truck to hug her.

"I keep forgetting... you look just like him." She said in a half whisper to Henry. She wiped away a few tears and hugged Jack next. "Oh my, Jack! What possessed you to dye your hair red? Some crazy teenage phase I guess. And look how big you've gotten!" She said and sized him up. He slouched down a bit to meet her at eye level.

"We're really glad you're letting us stay here for the night, I don't know what we would have done without you!" Jack said bowing.

"Oh you don't have to worry about that, you're family, now come on and help me move the fence back or else your dog might run off.

"He won't run away, he's a good dog." Henry said as the dog leaned into his leg and watched the three interact.

"Just the same, we don't want prying eyes in my yard. The old biddies down the street are always trying to peek at my blue Anthuriums, also known as flamingo lily. Bred them myself. They are usually red or white but I like blue, you should take some seed bulbs before you go! But first let's get you guys something to eat. Hope you like meatloaf!"

They moved the fence partition back into place and leaned it against the house and fence post to keep it from falling over. Jack grabbed their bags from the camper and locked the door. The dog followed his every step but would sometimes stick his nose to the ground and whine with his eyes closed.

"Come on... Danny." Jack said holding the back door open. The dog went inside and proceeded to sniff the entire house out of curiosity. Returning to the three at the dinner table every few minutes to make sure his masters were still safe. Jack watched out of the corner of his eye as the dog inspected the rooms in view.

After the meal was finished, Henry cupped her hands in his, and started to tell her what the situation was. Over a payphone they had just enough time to let her know that they would be in town that night and to ask for her help. Henry hurriedly said he would explain it all later, but they had to hang up in case the line was traced.

Ana now listened intently as Henry summed up the dilemma they were in.

Jack heard Dan knock something over in the far part of the house and went to clean up whatever mess he made. He saw the dog in the bathroom curled up to one side in the tub. "What's going on there Danny?" He said.

Dan's head lifted over the rim of the tub. His eyes were squinting and his mouth moved a little. Then he just licked his lips. Jack entered the bathroom and was hit by the foul smell. He knelt down next to the tub and discovered that the dog had vomited close to the drain.

"Whoa that is rank!" Jack said and turned on the water low so it would wash it down the drain. The dog sat on his left side at the other end of the tub and hung his head.

"What did you eat?" Jack washed his hands under the faucet and dried them on a towel hanging up. He turned his attention back to Dan and pat his head.

The dog suddenly bared his teeth at Jack and whined softly. He coughed and shook his head violently for a few seconds. Bits of spittle flung out from the mouth in nautili paths through the air, sticking to the walls and ceiling. Thrusting out his forepaws to steady himself, he stomped them firmly to the basin. He faced the faucet and clenched his eyes shut, trembling with his head and nose level with his shoulders.

"Lllheeett mmeee thaallkk..." He said at length.

"What? Dustin?! Is that you?" Jack said excitedly.

The dog nodded a bit with his eyes half shut. He seemed to be having an internal debate and eventually, they seemed to come to an agreement. The head raised and he smiled. "Hhhii aggainn." Dustin was able to whisper with an fatigued grin.

"Oh man, Dustin! I thought we lost you! What's been going on in there?" he ruffled the dog's head for a minute.

"Weee haaadd aa fiightt." He said looking down at the vomit residue. "Ii wonn thhiiss rrouunnd."

Jack was so happy to hear he was ok that he just had to pick up and hug the dog.

"Eaassy... doownn boyy... whhherree arree wwe?"

"You don't know?" Jack asked.

Dustin shook his head and clambered awkwardly out of the tub. He sniffed around the overly decorated bathroom and started for the hallway.

"Wait... Dad hasn't gotten to you yet. We're at my aunt's house, he's telling her what happened and what our plan is."

"Yyouu hhavve aa pllann?"

"Yeah, well, we had to start without you. We thought that you would help us out today and when you didn't show, we started using the letters that Jen's mom sent her."

Dustin cocked his head.

"Jen's mom works for the Center too, she sent her letters over the years with postal addresses all around Utah. So we've started searching the areas around those locations, looking for forests that might be able to hide the Center. Cabins in the woods next to hiking trails. We were able to cover 2 of the 6 addresses. The forested areas around them were fairly small actually, so we got them done today." Jack said as they inched their way to the spare bedroom that Ana had set up for them. Once settled in, he continued to update what they've learned to Dustin.

Dustin thought about their plan so far and approved of their methods. "Soorryyy Iii wassnn't tthherre foor youu." He said looking out the window at the truck and camper in the backyard. "Whooo iiss Jjenn?"

"She's this girl from Amystriss, we've all been friends for awhile. I actually think Ed's got a serious crush on her."

Dustin gawked at Jack and gave a breathy laugh. Jack thought he was loosing control again and crouched down in front of the dog holding his head.

"Aaa giiirrl freiinnd? Rreaally?" He said happily and shook his head from Jack's grip. Dustin didn't believe it when Frank said as much when they were in the cell block at the Center, but now confirmed by Ed's brother was proof enough for him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack was a bit taken aback by the response.

Dustin waved a forepaw at him. "Tthhhat'ss gooodd, iiitt's gooodd." He whispered again and then perked up his ears at the voices coming from the kitchen. "Thhatt's myyy cuuee." He said and padded off into the dining room and sat in front of Henry and Ana as if he were called on stage.

Henry glanced down at the dog and stopped in mid sentence. He put his hands on his knees and leaned in closer to him. Jack came into the room and chuckled. "He's back. I don't know how but he's back."

Henry smiled and held out his hand as an introduction. "Ana, meet Dustin. Dustin, Ana."

She sat back in her chair and gave Henry a dubious look.

"No really, this is Dustin, err... what's your last name again?" Henry asked the dog.

"Hhaamillton." He said quietly facing Ana.

"Hamilton, right. He is from the Center and is Edward's umm father, in a way." Henry said and held onto Ana's hand.

"It's ok, he's not going to hurt you, he's here to help us find Mom and Ed." Jack said as reassuringly as possible.

Dustin sensed that if he moved he might just make her climb the walls.

"Say something else. Say something else dog." She asked with childlike wonder in her old eyes. She had just gotten used to having a talking cat for a nephew but this was something new. "I always tell people I dance with the perverse and unusual but this dog..." She had an expression of pleasant confusion on her face.

"I'mm noott aa doogg." He said semi irritated. "I'mm aa freeinnd."

"Why is he talking like that? I can barely hear him."

"The Center took out his voice box. It's really a miracle that he's able to talk at all, I mean, I don't know if I could do it. You know, talk with someone else's mouth..." Jack said moving the belt-collar over so she could see the scar from the operation. Then showed her what he had found earlier, the very thin scar around the crown of the dog's skull.

"Those monsters! I admit I was having a hard time believing your story but sitting here is the proof! They're monsters! Where are they? Take us to them Mr. Hamilton." She stood up.

Dustin hung his head a little and looked sadly up at Jack and Henry.

"It's a secret facility, it's not on any map and we think it's hard for him to read."

"Iii cann narroww itt dowwn... " He said and coughed a bit.

Jack sat on the ground next to Dustin, "Dan, you let him talk ok? It's ok Danny."

"What's going on? What's wrong with him?" Ana glanced back and forth at them.

Henry said, "We think that, well, because two minds aren't supposed to inhabit one body, they are in constant battle for who gets to control it. Dan had control for a long time today, but Dustin had it before then, right after they did the operation 2 days ago, Tuesday night."

"Such animals. Not you dear, them." She said to Dustin.

Dustin smiled at her but started to cough violently again. His whole body shook and convulsed for a few minutes. Henry eased him to the ground and kept the dog from hurting himself from involuntarily kicking the kitchen table legs or smacking the floor with too much force. Jack was trying to think of a way to stop it but then the dog suddenly relaxed on the ground with his mouth open and tongue lolled out.

"Dustin? Dustin!" They attempted to rouse him.

The dog moved his mouth a little and licked his lips as if he was just waking up. He raised his head and looked around and up at the three people. Apparently confused about where he was, he got to his feet and wandered off.

"Shit." Henry said and sat heavily on the floor.

"What the heck just happened, Henry?" Ana said worriedly.

"Dan's got control again. I don't know when we'll get to talk to Dustin again. Which means we have to wait." Henry said and kicked the table leg in frustration, clinking the dishes on top.

"Well you can't go anywhere tonight, you boys are exhausted. Come on, let them be. We can try and chat in the morning." Ana said and made a plate of leftovers for Dan. The dog happily padded over again and ate the food gratefully, smacking his lips and drooling.

Ana cleared the table and watched the dog with wonder, occasionally rubbing his ears and humming. Jack and Henry were asleep in their beds before they were able to change their clothes. Ana stayed up late watching the news in the living room. Dan sat in the hallway and continued to watch her diligently, keeping himself between her and his sleeping masters.

"Strange things happening in the science community early today right, Andy?" A perky newscaster said on TV.

"You bet Millie, NASA scientists are scrambling tonight over mysterious dust cloud activity on the moon. Every single telescope across America tonight is aimed at this unusual anomaly. We met with the chief astrologist Dr. Kernel for the story."

A short clip of the moon's surface was played on a large screen behind a podium. The astrologist approached the podium and read from a few sheets of paper.

"As you can see, through ordinary telescopes you will be unable to detect these small dust storms. But with our telescopes in the Arizona desert, the DCT telescope and others around the country, we were able to detect this unprecedented phenomenon. Here in the direct center of the moon's surface facing Earth, we can see what appears to be a lunar tornado. It began to form at about 6:30 early this morning first appearing as a small cloud, again at 7am more dust appeared over the surface and here we can actually see its pointed shadow. Every hour another burst of activity on the surface, each forming a micro tornado." He checked his notes again and said, "An upside down tornado."

A flurry of questions from reporters are heard off camera as he waves his hands to quiet them. "We are still analyzing the data and video streams from our satellites and it is impossible that every one of them would be showing the same visual error. The activity had stopped at 1pm this afternoon and we will be keeping you updated if anything else should happen."

"Dr. Kernel! Isn't it true that without an atmosphere it is impossible for tornadoes to appear on the surface of the moon?"

"Normally I would say you were correct, that is what makes this anomaly so interesting."

"Doctor! What can we expect from this new activity?"

"As far as we know at the moment it shouldn't effect anything here on Earth. The dust storms are so minute..."

"Where was the tornado pointed? You say it was upside down and on the nearest side to Earth, was it pointed to Earth?"

Dr. Kernel rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Yes, it was pointed to Earth."

An audible gasp sparked a new flurry of questions. "Where exactly?"

"It doesn't matter, the dust couldn't possibly reach Earth." He waved his hand at the eager faces. "Utah. It was aiming more or less towards Utah."

The doctor left the podium as two other scientists and officials urgently hurried him off stage in fear that there would be a panic. Video was cut off from the conference room and the news studio was once again on screen.

"So there you have it, storms in space. We will be right back with your _Earth_ weather and sports." The TV reporters blurbed long into the night.

Ana snored softly in the recliner and the dog eventually went to lay down at the foot of Jack's bed.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Albert, you know better then anyone that Fifteen's slight weight was always a problem with the heavier fighters. Of course we can teach him how to fight and kill but we don't believe that part of the training to be so necessary. We know he isn't really the master of deception because it is usually a learned behavior, it's not genetic. We're having a hard time teaching him to be sneaky. He's just too cocky to be subtle, he's showing off too much."

"He's winning the matches isn't he?"

"He's playing around. At some moments I was waiting for him to shout, ' Tag, you're it.' I mean seriously." Mr. Axom chuffed. "We need you to either get him into better shape or retrain him for reconnaissance rather then full blown assassin. We can tell that he's gone too soft."

"Just give me some time. I can get him into the right shape and mindset." Albert said picking up a bottle of whiskey from the kitchen bar and pouring a glass for himself. "Of course his strength would have been at its peak performance and thereby helping me out immensely, if you'd have just stopped at one severed appendage. Did you really have to make it a full set of limbs? I'm beginning to wonder about your lust for children's blood." Albert said angrily at the suits.

"Just have him ready. We will be watching. And don't give either of them any liquor. It is risky giving whiskey to the frisky." Mr. Axom said smirking.

Albert nodded but shot a choice finger at them after they walked away. "Don't forget to send me a postcard while you're out on your power trip." He muttered under his breath at them. He went back to the long row of chairs where the rest of the employees were finishing up their meals. Glancing at the end of the hall, he nodded to a waiting figure, and went to sit down next to Fifteen and leaned over so only he could hear.

"After dinner you are to go outside with that feline down the hall. One last bout before bed." Albert said pointing to Nina sitting menacingly dainty on top of the long table. "Since you are only a few pounds heavier then she is right now, this should be an interesting match. She may be far lighter then your other opponents, but you will have to use everything you've got to keep up with her, because she is still undefeated. Good luck boy." Albert thumbed his nose and got up again from his seat and patted the boy on his head.

The kiddy table sneered at them and slipped off to watch the match outside and out of sight. The best spot was on the roof of the Victorian house. Everyone else was setting up beds in the main 2 story house and the white medical building. About a half dozen were setting up tents behind the house to sleep in because they didn't like the smell of disinfectant and cleaning agents in the rooms.

The rest of the people stayed outside in the chilly night air to watch the fight because they knew that no one can beat Nina in a match. In either form, she is a formidable opponent. Fierce and uncompromising, she rarely held back anything and always fought to the finish. The boy's heart raced as he walked over to her, he could practically hear the other people's anticipation for the bloody battle.

"Follow me." She ordered and silently leaped down from the table.

"Where?" He asked nervously as they rounded the corner.

"You'll see." They left the main house and went to the same large sparring field in the middle of the buildings. A blinding white light from the roof of the Victorian house was turned on as they entered the area. "They're watching, so don't try to run." She warned.

"Where could I run?" He said back and looked around.

She eyed him suspiciously then stood firmly in front of him. "Are you ready?" She flicked her tail back and forth brushing the ground. Her feet splayed out slowly and she lowered her head and began to snarl under her breath.

"For what? What are you anyway? I'm not trying to be rude or anything, I'm part California spangled and Maine-coon myself." He said politely, showing her his striped tail as if she needed evidence.

Nina took a few steps to his right. "Why does it matter?"

"Well because you're beautifully spotted and bigger then I am as a cat, I'm actually kinda jealous."

Nina took it as a compliment and then noticed the men standing behind him. Her rather large ears swiveled around to listen in on the other men's comments about the impending fight. She spoke softer so only he could hear, "Half wild Serval - half domestic, they call my breed a savannah. I am much faster then your cat form and can jump higher and of course I have better hearing then any normal house-cat. Savannahs are also quite expensive, they keep telling me." She flicked her spotted tail at the lab coats. "Better get on with it. Are you ready, Fifteen?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask you what your name is."

"Are you serious?" She sat back down.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I was so rude, introductions should come first when meeting someone."

"You really are serious. Sheesh we've still got some work left to do. My name is technically Sixteen but they call me Nina."

"Why?"

"... It's my code name..." She hesitated, unwilling to lie to him.

"Code name? Wow that sounds cool, can I have one?"

"No."

"Oh..." He looked down, deflated.

"Why are you here?" She asked as a double question.

"They said I should fight you... but I don't think I can fight a little girl."

"What did you just say?" Nina was surprised and a part of her was put off by the comment. She took it to mean that she was too weak to fight him. "Prepare yourself now!" She said then lunged at him.

He ducked and ran in a wide circle around her. All the while she tried to get at him, he ducked or dodged the attack.

"Fight me coward!" She hissed and dug her nails into the ground every time she prepared to leap at him. It was murder on her claws but she couldn't risk not getting a firm hold of him should he actually slow down his dodging and running. She was surprised how fast he could get in his human skin. She slowed to a trot, still following after but with increasing confusion. "Aren't you going to face me?"

"No. It's not a fair fight." He said which infuriated her. The scientists took notes and shook their heads at him. He tried to keep his waving tail from letting on what he's really feeling. No easy task.

"Come on you quitter! Fight me!" Nina shouted. She was furious that he was ignoring the rules of sparring matches. The first and most obvious one is to _spar_ with your opponent, he was embarrassing her in front of everyone and was insulting the sport that she was well adept at. "This isn't a game of tag you idiot! Get over here and fight!"

"It's not you, I don't want to fight any girls. It's not right." Fifteen said as he launched away from her on his fingertips, trying to gain a safe distance without going 'out of bounds' and being shot with the guard's tranquilizer darts. He whipped his head around to see where she was going to come from next. "I don't want to fight!"

"Then I will make you." She warned and went straight for his throat and they both fell to the ground and tumbled around in the sandy soil. Soon a dust cloud was forming all around their wrestling bodies and they were nearly unseen by the observers. Nina stood on him and dug her nails into his bare chest and pinned him to the ground. He gave a pained grunt and looked up into her fierce eyes. In a low growl she said, "You don't have a choice." She paused and stared him down. She thought she sensed something behind his eyes, but the dust was settling and she ran out of time. Fifteen used all of his strength to push her off of him and backed up panting and waiting for another attack but she simply perked her large ears forward and sat down and angled her head slightly at him, questioning.

Albert stepped out from the crowd, "Ok, we will take a short break you two. Be back here in 10 minutes. Nina can I see you please?"

She gave Fifteen a quizzical look then nodded at Albert, following the men to the house. Fifteen sat down, practically collapsing, onto the sandy ground. Dodging her relentless attacks was harder then fighting the slow humans. He slowly caught his breath and reached over to feel the foot prints and pad prints made on the ground. Trying to memorize her moves in his head so he can learn from her, what kind of fighting and hunting techniques she uses. He thought then about the moves that the other opponents made and then recalled a different sparring partner altogether. Only the fleetest of visions of a tall sandy haired boy about his own age. Not someone that was here today, he was too young to be a part of the Center's crew, and he wasn't a chimera either. The boy was tall, and smiled a lot at him. Fifteen almost had a name to the kind face when he was distracted by the overhead light being swung away from the field and aimed towards the roof of the Victorian house that it was attached to. Fifteen was left in the near pitch blackness, with an equally blanked mind, unfortunately dismissing his train of thought.

He looked around himself and saw an orange glow off to one end of Site B and noticed the still smoldering remains of a structure. Only one man remained poking it with an old rake. "What's that all about? Do I have to walk over a bed of coals now?" Fifteen joked to himself but really hoped that was not the plan.

From far overhead, the observers were placing bets on who would win the next round as the first was a kind of draw, leaning towards Nina being the victor. They needed the light to see how much money they had to offer for new bets.

"Put $20 on me." Nina said from behind them.

They were so startled that they nearly lost their balance on the roof. "Of course, yeah, you smoked his ass."

"You and you, get downstairs and on the CB. The janitor is done cleaning up the Center and needs directions here. Keep it brief. Oh and Albert wants you down off of his roof, but he didn't say you couldn't watch." She said and suddenly leaped off of the 2nd story roof and landed on the porch awning below. She gracefully slid down to the support beam using her nails and jumped onto Albert's car which was still parked right at the entrance to the house.

"Why do we have to relay messages? Where is our Comm. officer anyway? It's his job to do this." they complained.

"Yeah I haven't seen Dustin for awhile. Is he sick? Does anyone know where he went?"

"No, I don't know, I thought everyone was here."

"Yeah, I haven't heard from him in days, why does he get a break? We're the replacements?" They asked around but eventually gave up and made the call back to the Center.

Ellen Ripleah answered once she was finished with cleaning up the Center of all leftover incriminating evidence. She was redirected to the B Site and made it there just as Fifteen was licking his wounds from Nina's second sparring match. He was embarrassed that he was beaten up by a girl that was younger then he was. Even though the two were currently about the same weight, she had the advantage of retaining her sharp fangs and claws. He just had a height advantage and longer limbs, being a human, but it didn't help much in that match against the fierce minx of a girl.

He felt that facing everyone inside with several large gash marks would hurt his pride so he waited outside until the wounds closed by themselves. He looked up as the large green refrigerated truck pulled into the long guarded driveway. He reclined semi-casually against a dead tree stump as the driver got down from the truck. She started to walk over to the house, stopping short when she noticed him.

"Hi." He called over to her.

Ellen tried to hide her surprise and dismay to find him there, and went right back to the truck to secretly watch him from inside the rear hold.

He shrugged and went back to tending his wounds when a breeze carried a familiar scent over to him. He sprang up from his seat and scanned the horizon eagerly. He knew he was being watched, so as nonchalant as possible, he jogged around the perimeter trying to pick up the scent again. He stopped short of the green truck as the scent hit him full on. His tail perked up and his heart raced.

"Is it?" He whispered to himself, looking at the dark figure in the truck. Some shuffling later, Ellen backed up out of the truck on her hands and knees, dragging with her a heavy box of papers.

"Oh my God, you startled me Ehh... kid." She said quickly and turned her head back around towards the box. "Send someone to help me out alright kid?" She ducked her head down so he wouldn't see her face and know instantly what she was doing, thinking, feeling.

He stood and stared at her, inhaling as much scent in the air as he was able. She cringed a little, hearing him smell the air. "Right... right, I'll send someone to help." He said finally and reluctantly turned away. 'I could have sworn... something smelled familiar... was it her?' He thought as he went away.

She muttered, "Thank God he didn't recognize Dustin's scent. That would have sent him over the edge."

Marley was sent over and helped out, picking up the other end of the box and carrying it to the white medical building.

"So what's the deal with the kid?" Ellen asked him, trying to sound only partially interested.

"Oh yeah, you remember the little kitten Fifteen right? He looked only 6 or 7 when he left us. And here he comes back as a tough lil shit teenager. They had to wipe his memory, he said his name was Edward and he lived with a family the whole time he was gone. Can you believe that? Anyway we have the foster mother in the basement over there, she's pretty doped up, I don't know why they're keeping her. They haven't even tested to see if he recognizes her so I'm wondering why the heck we still have her here."

"Leverage?" She suggested.

"Maybe. But the kid doesn't recognize anything at all from his time with 'em. They had some stuff laying around the site that they had us take from their house and he just had a blank stare on his face the whole time. Nothing, no reaction. So we're going to go ahead and burn it all tonight once everyone's asleep. You awake enough for that?"

"You want me to burn his stuff? I just got here, I was at the Center cleaning up after everyone all day and now you want me to pull another all-nighter?"

"Sorry, forgot about that. There's some beds open in the main house on the 2nd floor, not a whole lot of us want to sleep down the hall from the kid. So, some of us guys are camping out way over there." he pointed behind the Victorian house that overlooked a small dried up pond and an elaborate weed infested garden.

"Anything good being burned in that bonfire?"

"Nothing really, just a bunch of photo albums, papers, toys, decorations, miscellaneous crap. Go ahead and sift through if you like, just don't let Albert catch ya doing it. Shouldn't be a problem though, he's over there in the small house, in bed already, I think. Wouldn't let anyone else sleep in the house except Nina in the original Nina's room."

"Thanks for the heads up Marley. Hey, what happened to the animals? The birds? I was in charge of cleaning the cages but I don't see any of the cages outside here."

"Oh they got rid of the remaining eagles, they nearly killed the kid the other day and Albert had the cameras removed and did something with them. Probably let them go free cause they're nowhere to be found. We couldn't sell them because they were illegal to own in the first place, endangered species an all. But we had to use Harpy eagles 'cause they were the only breed that could take off carrying the cats. They worked out beautifully because no one pays any mind to birds. I overheard the visual department claiming they were the first to capture pictures of Fifteen in that city. At the school on Monday, the day before we went in, they spotted him climbing up the side of the building following the same gray cloud the Harpy's were tracking. They called the tech guys and had them switch their machine on to see what would happen and bang, the cat changes shape and he crashes into the shed the birds were in. Since the camera guys were controlling them at the time, the birds just sat there for a minute before the trainers came in and ordered them to fly away before Fifteen could catch or kill them. The eagles worked great for a while but mistakes kept happening. The other day they were sent in just to retrieve Fifteen, the guys made the mistake of trying to get the birds to kill the older brother as well. I don't care how well trained they were, it was ridiculous to order just two birds to kill an able bodied teen and retrieve a 20-some pound cat." Marley said as he put down a stack of boxes in front of the white building. "It's really no wonder the higher up's had enough and scraped the avian department. Especially now that they have Fifteen back again."

"Yeah, but to go through all that work training them, getting them to work right and then let them go free like that? I don't know if they could survive in the wild, is there some reason behind it all?" Ellen said.

"I think Albert's going soft. Or maybe... maybe they just said they were released out of the goodness of their hearts but really they were sent on some super secret mission we don't even know about." Marley said unloading another box from the truck.

"There's a lot of things we don't know about." Ellen said off the cuff.

"What do you mean by that? Do you know something?" Marley asked.

"No, nothing. It's just... they don't really instill a lot of faith in us, right? I mean, they don't tell us everything that they are doing, and I think it's because they don't even trust their own workers. Now I don't know about you, but I don't like being kept in the dark. Especially when this whole operation could blow up in our faces. They run off with all the money to some private island and we get shafted with nothing, as well as a blank work history for our next job. Can't really tell our new bosses where we've worked all these years right? Wouldn't look good on a resume. If the Center really does go down, do you really think they will give a damn about us?"

"Doubt it." Marley said kicking a rock out of the way.

"Right, we are all in this together right? But they like to rule this company like a dictatorship. Do what they say or else be thrown to the wolves. How can you trust any boss that would do that?"

"Yeah, I see what you mean. They treat us like children one minute then like expendable slaves the next. And what do we ever get from it?"

"Nothin." Ellen said.

"Yeah, nothing. You're right, I'm gonna talk to the boys about this."

"Don't mention me when you do, I don't want my head on the chopping block."

"Don't worry little lady, you're one of us, one of the grunts. And we don’t rat out anyone willing to work as hard as we do, right alongside us." Marley said and shook her hand once they put the box's down.

"Pleasure chatting with you. I'll see you guys in the morning." Ellen smiled.

"Don't forget to get some of the good stuff from that pile over there before we burn it later. Suzy an me already called dibs on the flat screen and blue ray. But the rest is yours if you want it."

"Thanks Mr. Diz. Goodnight." She waved at him then once he was out of sight she sprinted over to the pile.

She picked out all of the things she thought would mean a lot to the family. "Wow they collected a lot of stuff, how am I supposed to know what means more to them then what?" Ellen said to herself while sifting through Christmas cards, a cage and aquarium half filled with old rocks and some wall decorations. There were a few house plants that she put upright and off to the side, out of range of the fire. Not planning on taking them with, but hoping that the innocent plants would be spared from the flames.

She felt slightly guilty for going through the family's personal belongings as if she was a thief in the night but she kept telling herself that it would be better her then someone who would keep their things. She packed up as many photo albums as she could as well as a wooden box of jewelry and tiny knick knacks from various states and attractions and anniversary’s. Putting some stuffed animals that looked careworn into another box, she saved about a third of the belongings. Leaving most of the clothes, she figured that they could easily replace them later. Scanning through the debris in the dark, she could hear some people walk by her, some 50 feet away. She stayed quiet and still, hoping to remain unnoticed.

She saw they had towels and a spare set of clothes in hand and assumed that they were going to use the chemical rinse showers at the lab. She figured it was because the main house's hot water supply probably ran out hours ago. For a moment she thought that that was a good idea for herself as well, once she was done there.

"Careful what you pack Ellen." She had to limit the amount of things that could fit in her truck.

Wearily, she got back to her feet and boxed the things back up and put them in the cab and rear of the dump truck that she usually drives for them. She was grateful someone had driven it to the new location for her. Once she was done boxing up the things, she grabbed her overnight bag and staggered off to one of the free beds on the 2nd floor. There was a shadow that seemed to follow her down the hall but when she turned, it wasn't there.

"Hmm." She said and got ready for bed, locking the door.

Fifteen tip toed towards the room and got down on his fingertips and knees and stuck his nose to the bottom of the door, smelling again that faint scent. He moved only when he heard someone getting up to use the bathroom. Eventually returning to his own private quarters, he smelled smoke outside but ignored it, thinking it was smoldering coals from whatever they burned that day.

He thought it must have been a big fire for it to still be burning. He undressed and collapsed into bed and slept hard. He was very tired.

 

 


	22. Nina's Decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nina isn't sure what's right and wrong anymore.

Chapter 22 Nina's Decision

 

 

 

Walking silently down the halls, Nina patrolled the small house. Going from room to room, she inspected everything new and old. She heard the house's only human occupant snoring quite loudly in the larger of 2 bedrooms. Nina sat watching him for a long while as he breathed and murmured quietly from time to time. She tried to curl up at the foot of Albert's bed but was repeatedly kicked at with his restless leg syndrome while he slept.

She never took the kicks to heart, and knew that he didn't mean to, but it still hurt. She gave up trying to sleep in that other bed hours ago. There were way too many smells still lingering around there for her taste. The bed was soft and there were new fleece sheets put on it for her to snuggle up in, but it didn't feel right. The room had been left in the same state as it was, many years ago, frozen in time.

The window was recently pried open from its frame as it had been nailed shut long ago to preserve the room. The soft air flowed through the bedroom and would kick up a miniature dust devil on the floor leading to the hallway.

Teddy bears lined the dresser, alongside bright and colorful make up kits and sparkling jewelry. But everything was covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs which made the stuffed animals look like ghosts in the night. Even though this was _her_ first time in the room, she was startled to see an additional stuff bear where she hadn't expected it to be. It had some very old dried roses in a vase in its furry hug, and a small pink ribbon tied loosely around its neck and body with the words, _'Our beloved Daughter'_.

She sat up on the bed for the longest time. Staring at each object hung up on the walls, draped over the corners of the mirror and the closet door. Each posed a question in her mind that she could not bear to answer.

She could touch every object physically but the intangible aura emanating from them nearly put her to tears. These were just normal toys, normal clothes and books. But each played like a sad song in her subconscious mind. Growing louder by the second, it went from merely sad to depressing. When it reached its agonizing apex, she left the room in tears slamming the door shut behind her.

Breathing heavily, she was eventually able to quiet her unwelcomed thoughts. Many tears fell, and she hated the grief that caused them. This may have been Albert's old house, but it was not her own... not anymore.

She sniffed away the tears and sadness, as she went about her self imposed duties. She needed a list. First, she should make sure the house was secure. Then check for adequate supplies for a long stay there. 'Let's see, next thing to find out, is if there is enough food to sustain us.' She trotted off to the kitchen and checked the cupboards to see what kind of rations they had in store. She frowned as the first cupboard door revealed the hard liquor cabinet.

'On to the next,' another cabinet filled with wine this time. The 3rd was thankfully empty. The 4th had a few boxes of cereal... also empty. Cabinet after cabinet she found more booze then food and stared at the aggrieved shelves and shut them again.

Giving a huff at the inadequate supply of food, she went to see what other provisions the lonely house had. There weren't many to be found anywhere. She did however smell out .45 bullet shells in the hall closet, and though her cat form is formidable, she wasn't strong enough to move the storage boxes to find out how many there were. She could sniff out the 2 guns that must have used those shells, one was cleaned before it was stowed away, the other smelled rusty. She passed by the larger bedroom again as Albert sighed in his sleep.

Briefly, she tip toed in and looked quizzically at a newer shopping bag underneath his bed. She didn't dare move or open the plastic bag for fear of waking him up with the crinkling noises, but she definitely smelled gun powder coming from the bag. Shrugging, she left him to his dreaming world and hoped that she too could eventually get to sleep somewhere.

She sat in the living room for a short while, staring at each of the photographs on the end tables and some photo collages hung on the walls. Three smiling faces of the small family were in just about every picture. Several had a familiar looking little girl playing around with some puppies and others were of a teenage Albert tilling the fields. Nina saw this same small house in the background of the photos of picnics and noticed the addition of a horse stable in a colored photograph. She leaned in closer to that one, and admired the beautiful wood craftsmanship and time that must have taken to build it. She thought it was a shame that it was now a heap of ash being swept around and played with by the wind. She wanted to visit it, go inside, look around. Inexplicably drawn to the stable that was no longer there.

To see outside, she had to move one of the huge heavy curtains. She saw a new blaze replacing the one that happened during the daytime. In the same spot too. "What in the world?" She whispered to herself as she snuck out of the house through Albert's bedroom window, closing it behind herself.

Quietly she walked up along one of the long shadows cast by one of the few people tending the fire. Her feline form was hidden from view because she blended right in with the trampled amber colored grass. She noticed the pile of rubble from between a pair of legs and sat down about a dozen feet away and could feel the heat coming off of the bonfire. The different smells from the electronic devices and plastic choked her and she had to back up for a while as the billowing black clouds were replaced by faster moving flames of burning papers and books.

"Kind of feel like Hitler, ya know? Burning books during the war?"

"Don't say that, this isn't to make a statement, these are just books. Words on paper. They mean nothing. The only meaning people get from them is what they put into it. If you enjoy the book then it's priceless and a crying shame to burn it, but if you don't care for the book, then it's just another piece of kindling." The man said as he threw a few more books into the fire.

"Ever read any of these?"

"I'm trying not to look at what they are." He spat on the ground and threw a few shirts over the singeing pages so he couldn't see them.

Nina sat quietly and watched as they ran out of the electronics and then tossed in some toys and model airplanes.

"Hey, watch this!" One of them said as he made one elaborately painted plane dive bomb into the center of the pile. "Kablam! That one was a kamikaze."

"You're sick." the man sneered with disgust.

"Guess why I'm working here." He smirked back as tall flames illuminated his face.

Nina skirted the edges and stopped at the pile. She smelled around and immediately recognized many of the scents. She knew which items belonged to him and which ones were the mother's. She knew the mother's scent well because she hung around her holding room outside of view. She liked how sweet her fragrance was, but more then that, Nina felt better around the mother. Comfortable.

She pawed a bit at the 'kindling' pile to stir up some other smells and identified Jack's hat and the father's work gloves. A plastic newspaper reeked of the dog and she kicked that one aside. She ducked out of sight as the 2 men picked up more fodder for the fire and tossed it in. She smiled at one of the things in the pile, 'This was his.' Carrying it in her mouth, because it was the only thing light enough for her to hold with ease, she went towards the 2 story Victorian house.

There were no guards to encounter nor cameras to evade view around the perimeter. She knew this because Albert told her that there was no way that anyone could leave the area without tripping the alarm system at the border of the grounds. He had to reassure her that if Fifteen made it by himself to the border, then they would have to kill the mother. Albert knew that Fifteen would never leave the Center without his mom, and that he had no reason to leave if he did not remember her and that he had returned to the Center for her in the first place.

Nina jumped past the slumbering bodies strewn about the huge living room that had been used as the dining hall. More or less it now resembled a flop house. Some employees even slept on the seats of fold out chairs, still in their work clothes. She slunk past them with ease and made her way upstairs. She could only detect one trail of his scent leading upstairs and none around the perimeter of the house so he didn't jump down from one of the windows or roof.

She passed by several rooms and peeked inside each one out of habit more then a need to inspect. Finally finding his room at the end on the left. She dropped the thing she carried from the bonfire just inside the door, and walked closer to him.

He laid under a thin red sheet on the twin bed and appeared to have been dropped into bed like a rag doll. Arms, legs, and tail all limp under the sheet and at odd angles. His tail twitched a bit as she entered the room. She froze immediately and stood there for a solid minute before taking another step. She slowly crept up next to his bed and could only see one of his hands hanging off of the edge. She sniffed at his fingertips, always wary about how he could strike her from his position.

Inch by inch she cautiously placed her forepaws on the side of the bed and raised her head to see him more clearly. From her diminutive vantage point, he seemed much larger now laying down then earlier when they fought. She could now see the make shift bandage that he had tied around his forearm and leg where she had managed to dig in with her claws and fangs. She suddenly felt bad for going at him with such unwarranted violence. He never struck her in that fight nor in the one previous. He only tried to hold her off of him as she clawed, bitten and scratched to get at his vital organs.

She salivated involuntarily at the idea of his blood in her stomach. Aghast at that thought, she sat on the ground gritting her teeth and cursing herself for doing that. She apologized to him in her mind and lifted her eyes to the edge of the bed once more.

'Why am I here anyway. What's he to me? Why do I feel this way when I see him...' She thought as his tail twitched again. 'I'm so confused.'

She heard a crash outside from something heavy being thrown into the fire. He stirred in his sleep and was almost awake at one point, he sighed again and settled back down, this time facing the other direction away from her.

She walked around to the other side of the bed and agilely jumped up next to him. There was plenty of room on that side as he barely filled a quarter of the queen bed. His gaunt frame was almost highlighted by the wrinkles in the blanket he was under. Nina watched him breath for a short while and was slightly relieved to hear that the breaths weren't as labored as when he laid on his stomach.

She was also grateful not to hear him snore, for some reason that sound irritated her more then anything. But it wasn't the sound as much as her trying to forget the memory of the sound. It was way too familiar and comforting and so being, it didn't sit well with her. She didn't allow herself to be lulled into sleep by the strange peace of mind it brought. In her experience, things that made her feel calm and easy were what made her lose her edge and alertness. That, to her, could mean death. Simultaneously, it was like a siren song she didn't want to resist. For a second, she almost wished that he would start snoring so she could fall asleep peacefully at his side.

'What's it like to sleep peacefully? They make it look so easy...' She got her nose closer to his face and stuck her tongue out at him. 'Idiots. That's the kind of thing that can get you killed. Never let your guard down. Especially when you're asleep. I don't care if the army's tired now. We've got a world that swings punches at the weak. What is he thinking being so trusting and soft?'

She was about to leave when an idea struck her, one that she couldn't let go. She backed up from him, out of swinging range, and glanced around to make sure the way was clear to the door should she need to escape quickly. Nina held her breath and saw his eyes dart back and forth rapidly. She let out the breath slowly so as to steady herself for what she was going to do.

"Psssttt!" she said loudly, testing.

Nothing.

"Hey!" she said nudging him and waited for a few minutes to make sure he remained unresponsive.

Now for the big test, "Pssst Edward? Ed wake up!" She hissed quieter then before so it wouldn't be the noise level that wakes him.

He shifted around in the bed. "Mmmhh?" He opened one eye to a squint. "I'd just gotten back to sleep, ... what do you want with me?" He asked.

"I knew it." She said and stepped closer, her tail flitting around in a triumphant way. "So how long are you going to keep up the rouse _Edward_?"

"Mmm? What rouse? I don't know what you're talking about." He shifted around in the bed and pulled the covers up in an attempt to cover his head. He then realized that it was actually a small silk robe he was under, and his feet were now exposed at the bottom. He brought them in and tucked the sheet under him to keep it from uncovering himself. He turned his head back to the side to look at her, "What's a rouse?"

"An act. You are putting on a show for them." Nina said in an accusing tone.

"If you say so." he shrugged.

"I do say so, _Edward_." she emphasized his name again and smiled when he clearly recognized his old name.

Ed frowned because he was found out by the little minx. "What do you want? Why are you even here? I don't feel like getting my ass kicked again before breakfast. Just leave me alone." He said pitifully, trying to cover up again away from her.

"I want to know about you. You are so odd, like a puzzle I can't solve."

"Get used to disappointment." He huffed and closed his eyes tightly. "Go to bed Nina." he said with an annoyed tone as if talking to a little sister.

"You held back in our fights today. I know you could have taken me out. Wanna know how I know?"

"No." he said, getting very annoyed now.

"Because you can improvise. I was watching you all day today. You could have beaten all of them within seconds of the fight starting, but I saw you hold back. You put on a good show for the humans, but I knew you really didn't want to hurt anyone." She said quietly and with a kind of admiration.

"Unlike some." He sneered.

Hurt by that comment, she turned her head away and whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Forget it."

"No really... I'm sorry. I'm very sorry." She said and sniffed.

Edward could tell she was actually about to cry and it broke his heart. He sighed and sat up in the bed next to her. He placed his hand on her back and patted it as gently as he could. He knew how it felt to be petted by people that think you're just some dumb animal, and found himself wondering what else he could do to comfort her.

She bristled a little under his hand and then forced herself to relax a bit. "You don't have to..." She understood the awkwardness in his actions.

"Ok, thanks... I didn't know what was ok... so umm, why are you here, is something wrong? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I just wanted to ask you something," she started, finding it easier to talk with him now that his mind had apparently 'come back'. She asked, "What do you remember?"

He propped himself up and wondered what she was up to, "What do you mean? About what?"

"What did you do in that little town? Did you actually like it there? They treated you like any other kid?"

"Yeah, they did, for the most part of course. It's hard for strangers to get used to the tail and slit cat eyes of course. The other stuff isn't so apparent. But, they did treat me with respect and I loved it there. It doesn't matter much now though, does it." He said roughly gesturing towards the outer perimeter he dared not to cross.

"What is that smell?" Edward asked as he got up from the bed, put on the robe and looked down from his window. Nina now understood that Ed must be accustomed to sleeping in the nude. Which is probably why he wanted to cover up in front of the girl. For him it was easier to sleep that way because he disliked trying to figure out where the opening was in his pajamas should he turn cat in the middle of the night. He was such a heavy sleeper that he wouldn't even wake up to transform some nights.

"What is that smell outside? It is really strong." He said opening up the window a crack.

"Umm... nothing." Nina said hesitantly.

"That barn can't still be on fire... what are they doing out there?" He tried to see the firelight by putting his head against the window and looking to the far left.

"You don't want to know." She gazed up at him and shook her head.

"What? What does _that_ mean? What the hell are they burning down there?" He was getting angry and a little fearful that she meant it was _someone_ and not something.

"I don't know if I'm allowed to tell you."

"You tell me now or you will regret ever fucking with me." his eyes burned into hers with tears forming in spite of the flame.

She backed up a little, he was serious so she spoke quickly. "It's your stuff. The stuff they stole from your house. You didn't remember it earlier so I thought that you wouldn't miss it."

"Wouldn't miss it? I thought they vaporized everything along with the house! Are you telling me that there's still some stuff that wasn't destroyed?"

"Well... not anymore... I'm sorry. When I passed by the pile they were already getting to the bottom of it. It was just clothes and spoiled food. I didn't think you would miss that."

Edward punched the window pane at the blaze down below. There were a few light bits of glowing embers flying upward past his window. Pieces of paper caught in the updraft. "Did you see any tablets? Any brown covered books? Or anything about the size of a notebook?"

"They already burned all the books."

" _Shit_." Edward said as he hit his head against the wall next to the window, subjugated yet again.

"They're just books, it's not the words, it's the person who reads them."

Edward scoffed at her. "Well no one's gonna read them _now_."

"There's other copies of those books out there, like at libraries and bookstores. Don't get so melodramatic."

"Ha. No there aren't. Not those books." He said and shook his head. "But you are right... it doesn't matter now. It probably didn't matter then either. They were just my journals. I doubt anyone would have read them."

"Oh you were talking about your diaries?"

"Journals."

"Same thing."

"No it's not. Diaries are for girls, journals are for boys." he clarified.

"Whatever. Your journals weren't burned. So quit whining." Nina jumped down off of the bed.

"What?!" He ran around in front of her as she was leaving.

"What 'what'? I said they're safe. So quit whining."

"Safe where? Where are they?"

Nina looked up at him and he got down on his hands and knees in front of her to speak to her with respect, eye to eye.

"I'll tell you... if you answer my questions." She said slyly.

"Anything. What do you want to know?"

"Well, first of all why do you care so much about your dia- journals?"

"They're all that's left from my past."

Nina thought that was a really lame thing to say but it also made her curious. "Why would you want to remember your past? Wouldn't that just make you sad?"

"Not sad at all, I loved my life with them. Why wouldn't I want to remember that?" He said then cursed himself. He understood why she wanted to hear his story, it was because she had no happy tale.

"Tell me about it." She insisted.

He motioned for her to take a seat on the bed, implying that it was going to be a long story. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything." Nina said wide eyed and anxious.

"Are you going to snitch on me? Is this just another test?"

"No. No tests. No one knows I'm here talkin to you. I- I'm just curious. Your dad and brother seemed to really care about you."

"You met them... that's right." He said, recalling her saying so while wearing his dad's leather coat back at the Center. "Did you umm, kick their ass?"

Nina gave a surprised laugh. "No, tried to... but no. Not really. Your dad is the one with the deadly kick." she patted her side with a paw.

Edward clenched his teeth at the idea that she fought so viciously that his pacifist dad was driven to kick her. Ed had to put that behind him. She was making progress. She left them alive, at least. He had no idea what happened since leaving them at the safe house and was very concerned, but, Edward didn't want her to dwell on her fight with his family. Wherever they were, he was comforted to know that they were no where near the Center.

"Tell me you left them alive and I'll tell you more." He couldn't resist the urge to know for sure.

"They're alive, and well. Your scruffy looking brother had some kinda padding around his arm so I couldn't do much damage to him. Your dad picked up a big ass wrench and I didn't feel like dying at the hands of some..." She stopped short then smiled. "Someone so brave. Heroic."

"Don't pander. It doesn't suit you." He said rolling his eyes but was secretly happy to hear of his family's resilience.

"Trust me the words taste bitter to me." She said smirking. "So how was it... out there..."

"Wonderful."

For the next few hours Edward told her about his simple yet adventurous life with the Johnson's and how she could be happy with them as well. He promised that if they should ever make it out of there that she would be more then welcomed into the family. She doubted it could ever happen, but still liked to listen.

He told her of the first day of school, how scared he was of the new town. But how ultimately they welcomed him in with open arms. Edward tried to repeat over and over in new ways how she could live a full and happy life without the Center.

She considered what he says and is secretly sad about knowing what they planned for him next. She was having an internal debate. He seemed to think that they took his mother back to Amystriss, now that he was back with them, and didn't have the heart to tell him that Janet was still there. Nina was also directly ordered not to tell him anything. She couldn't slip up again like she did when she said his things were taken from the house and eventually burned. But still felt compelled to talk with him.

Since Ed's arrival she had watched him carefully. She hadn't formally met him when they were young kids at the Center, but Ed knew all about her.

He was always ushered out of the way when she was to pass by. He was trained on how to act normally out in public by Albert, which came in handy when it was time to live what he learned. Nina on the other hand was just trained to go in, hit the target and get out as quickly and efficiently as possible. Edward was to hide in plain sight and she was trained to hide in the shadows. When she was sent overseas she had several escorts to aide her in her missions. Eventually she got used to the mini missions and training scenarios to be trusted in the hunt for Edward in Amystriss. She located him several times but inexplicably chose not to engage in combat. She never reported back while out in the field, and waited until after he was already caught to return to base.

Even though she technically failed in getting Edward, no one would stand up to her and tell her so. Albert wouldn't hear of it either so it was a moot point. 'Nina does not fail' was the mantra that filled the halls.

Nina was getting tired of this praise and adulation for things that she herself was not proud of. She actually preferred not to fight if there was an alternative. But if she was ordered to, it was easy for her and never failed to take down her opponent. In doing so, it made Albert happy. He then would say how proud he was of her so she eventually learned that his pride should be her pride. That sustained her for a long time. She was happy to slink around in the shadows and do the assignment. She had no need to learn of anything else besides how to accomplish her missions. In what might later prove to be a fatal flaw, she was not taught much about life outside the Center.

Ed was flabbergasted at her lack of knowledge about the vast outside world. He informed her what happened to him when he left. Talking unabashedly about everything out there that he had experienced so far, namely the fun times he had hanging out and playing in the parks, the school in Amystriss, movie theaters, diners and rivers. How beautiful and intricately complex, but in perfect harmony, nature is in. And all the animals that he had learned were out there. Just in America alone, how diverse life is a few miles away from the Center. The only animals she had ever known were bastardized versions of wildlife.

There were few animals at the Center despite its research into finding the right animal for their purposes. It all started with the rats, then moved up to different breeds of cats, as well as larger breeds of owls, eagles, dogs. But above all she missed the one that she had loved dearly, even thought they only met that once, there was a undeniable connection. She remembered watching in horror as the surgeons dissected her love, for parts. The savannah feline, the other half of her very being. The first breaths Nina took as a chimera was on the operating table watching the savannah take its own last breaths. She never got over watching the poor feline die next to her. Nina put up a barrier in her emotional mind to cut off all potential ties to other animals. If she never got attached to them, then there was no reason to mourn them when they were killed. Still, she couldn't help but watch them scurry about in their cages. Or follow the birds flying around in the open training area deep underground. She now wondered if the unadulterated wild animals out there were so different then the ones she had grown up with.

Edward recalled his joy of tracking down every animal within a day's trot from home, and releasing them after playing around for a minute. When he was still new to the outside world he would often try to have conversations with the animals when no one was around. Eventually he realized that what Jack said was true, and that Ed would have to live with being unique. Edward told Nina that Jack became his trusted friend and brother and he could talk to Jack about anything. Other animals remained just plain animals and good people became his closest friends.

Edward told her that it was much easier for other people to accept him as he is when he simply talked to them. When each was honest and open. He admitted that it took a long time before he would become relaxed enough to be himself around people. When he was in his feline form he had to jump out of people's ways just like Nina probably had to around the Center. He could sense that she became bitter at being ignored when she was easily overlooked, so she went on the offense before anyone else could even say 'Hello'.

Edward was very honest when he spoke to her that night. He felt that she'd understand the stress of simply being chimeras. The only living shape-shifters in the entire world. Soon, she joined in, and told Edward how she had to hold back what she was feeling for the same reasons he had. There was simply no one else that could possibly understand what it felt like to start the day off as a normal looking cat then go to bed as a scrawny teenager. Having people take you more seriously when they are talking to a human versus being literally kicked around as a cat.

Even in day to day activities. It was next to impossible to hold anything with their paws. As humans they were labeled as lazy and irresponsible by adults just because they were young and needed rest. Never mind the fact that the two of them would soon be older then those same people, because they age 3 times faster then anyone. When they sleep at night they have to burrow into tucked covers so they wouldn't fall off of the bed because their sleeping minds would forget what form they were in. Going to bed as a smaller feline with plenty of room on the bed, shifting in their sleep, then falling off of the bed because it was now 4 times smaller upon waking up.

However, their condition was also freeing for them in different ways. They were able to do things that no ordinary person or cat could do. Jumping effortlessly onto extraordinary tall trees and rooftops with the ability to hear great distances away, as well as having a super keen sense of smell and sight. Naturally agile, they could get anywhere and do practically anything in either form. They both agreed in the end that it wasn't so bad being shape-shifters. One thing they desired, were more people like themselves, if only for the company.

There were other benefits as well that are not obvious, they were able to regenerate faster then either human or cat being because of what the Center built into them. Regrowing severed limbs with the flip of a switch and a body full of magnititals. If the Center was interested in an injury and amputee free society, they could have turned over their research to the medical world. However, the Center was only interested in making government money and if their research ideas and progress information had gotten out then everyone would want to become a shifting chimera.

Which is impossible. The shape-shifting chimeras had to be born that way. People that were already born and grown as humans could never become shape-shifting chimeras, only their clones had a chance. And even then there was no guarantee it would live. It was a painstaking process of finding the right DNA, going through thousands of permutations and tests to even come close to finding an eligible match with any animal for the shifters. Less then 4 percent of the human population had such compatibility with the process of making shifting chimeras. Not to mention the huge gauntlet of procedures that needed to be successful to make it change its shape. Only Edward and Nina were able to survive the operations and transmutations. Every other one died. The Center had tried to create a Seventeenth and Eighteenth chimera, unbeknownst to Nina or Ed, which had also died. The Center's council did not see the need in telling anyone because they'd have to admit that they couldn't make lighting strike a 3rd time. The Center's dignity was faltering and money was running out. They were forced to work with what they got.

On honest review, Edward said that he changed his mind on having more shape-shifters out there in the world, if it meant that the Center would be involved.

Nina sat still for a long time and then smiled weakly up at him. She then said it was getting late and that he should rest up for the big day ahead of him. She didn't want to tell him anything more, because it would only dampen his spirits.

Edward was just happy to see that she was taking an interest in the outside world. It was a huge step for her, and a drastic change from when he saw her just days before, looking at her from atop Albert's shoulder. She stood tall as a person but it was like the stance of a girl that only showed off her domineering personality, all the while hiding her scared soul deep inside.

That soul was able to breath freely that night.

Her mind was filled with new ideas and wants and wishes that had nearly been ripped away from her. She still loved Albert, she didn't know why, but she felt a very deep connection to him. She couldn't bear to disappoint him with any of her actions. She thought that Edward had felt that way too, at least back then. But Edward had changed. Leaving the Center and living out there without Albert seemed to make him happy. A concept that baffled her to no end.

Albert had been her only joy in life. But here comes Edward... someone she could really talk to, someone who understands what she's been keeping hidden inside for years. And maybe... just _may_ be able to take her away from the duties of the soldier that they imposed on her these past 3 years. She was very good at her job, but she just now realized that she hated doing it. She could stand it most of the time because it made her beloved Albert happy.

'When do my feelings come into the matter? Why should I sacrifice my happiness for the Center? Why must I keep it up when lying in that bed over there is my predecessor that got away from it all. Edward is back here again because he felt such strong love for his adoptive family to give up his freedom. Give it all up for _their_ good and not his own.' she thought to herself.

'How far would I go for the scientists? For the caretakers or the security personnel? For Albert...' She had a lot to think about that night so she left Edward in his room to sleep peacefully. She wandered down the hall and jumped out of the way of a pair of feet that suddenly appeared to her left.

"Oh jeez! Shit, I'm sorry Nina, I didn't see you there."

"Watch where you're going next time." She muttered instinctively, then softened, "It's ok, not your fault. _I'm_ the one that should have watched where I was going."

"What are you doing here? I thought you were bunking in Albert's cabin."

"I can't sleep in that house. I think there's too many memories there." she reflected quietly, "You are Ellen right? The janitor?"

"Yeah... did you need something?"

"No, I was just going to ask how the Center looked, was everything taken care of before you locked up?" Nina inquired.

"Yes, it's all secure, now if you don't mind, I've got some stuff I have to do..."

"Like what? Maybe I can help."

Ellen was surprised at how chatty Nina was. Usually she would just hiss some obscenity and be on her way. Ellen could tell that something profound happened to her.

"I don't think you'd be interested... it's kinda messy work... I don't want to bother you." Ellen said trying to dodge Nina's questions without raising suspicion or interest.

"I don't mind. I need to do something or else my head might explode thinking about... stuff."

"Like what?" Ellen asked, concerned.

"Promise you won't tell? I mean... can I trust you?"

"With anything, dear. I will not tell a soul. Maybe I can help." Ellen said hopefully, kneeling down to Nina's level to show respect and kindness.

"I was thinking about Edward. You know? I mean, he lived out there for years. _Years_! And he could have stayed out there for the rest of his life, but he came back."

"For his mother. Yeah, I heard about that."

"Anyway, I mean, do you think the Center is as bad as Ed was saying?"

Ellen gulped as she was trying desperately to figure out if Nina was setting her up for something. She was never this talkative and she guessed it was because the girl was trying to root out any weak links in the chain. At the same time Ellen was wondering what Nina was saying about Edward. Calling him by his name and not the number he was assigned. 'Why would she call him that? Did he remember he was there for his mother? Did he remember his past?' She thought. "You talked to him tonight?" Ellen asked as politely as possible.

"Yeah... he said that the Center is evil. And that the family he was living with was very loving and affectionate. He said that he was able to go to school and see movies and read books and do everything he wanted to. Do you think that it's possible for me to do any of those things? Do you think Albert would let me?"

"I think Albert... might... let you do some of those things? I mean you know how he gets." Ellen had never heard Nina refer to Albert by his name. She had always called him 'Dad' or 'Daddy'. 'I hope it's a good indication of Nina seeing him for who he is, not as a father figure to her. But that doesn't matter now.' Ellen was checking her watch and glancing towards the stairs, fingers fiddling with the keys in her jacket pocket.

"What are you late for? Where are you going this time of night?" Nina asked.

"It's nothing, you should go back to bed. I can handle it."

"If you're going for a drive I want to come too. I want to get out of this place, if only for an hour. I want to be without a schedule for once." Nina said firmly and trotted towards the stairs.

"I uh... yeah I guess you can come with, but please, _please promise_ not to tell anyone. I could get into some serious trouble for what I'm about to do."

"What is it?"

"I'll tell you, only after we leave the perimeter. Do you still want to come? I won't tell anyone that you left if you promise not to tell anyone what I'm about to do."

Nina mulled on it for a bit then nodded firmly up at her. Ellen always seemed to be an honest person. Nina quite liked her but could never have a regular chat. There were always looming figures or electronic eyes watching.

"I'm gonna pick up a spare set of clothes for you, ya never know right?" Ellen said sifting through her mini suitcase in the room. She had to whisper because of the slumbering roommates she shared the space with.

"Do you like this?" Ellen held up a t-shirt with several black and white revolvers shooting tubes of bright red lipstick from the barrels. She then held up a pair of lime green and orange plaid pants underneath as if it were a natural matching set. "I also have some blue shoes in the truck, in case I wanted to go jogging during my break."

"You know I can see in color right?" Nina smirked at her then giggled.

Shocked, Ellen dropped the clothes when she heard Nina laugh for the first time ever. Picking them up, she gave a quick run through her case again when Nina stopped her, saying that the outfit would be just fine. Secretly Nina was trying to guess the janitors' age because she thought that the clothes were way too teeny bobber for her.

Together they left the huge house and had to slide past Albert's car blocking the porch entryway without touching it. The car's alarm was set to go off if anyone bumped into it or tried to remove it from the porch entryway. At Ellen's request, Nina was to sit quietly in the cab of the garbage truck until she was ready. First, Ellen put down a blanket over top several crates and boxes on the seat and floor. Another blanket covered more stuff in the back of the large truck in case someone happened to look back there.

Ellen went to the white building and was gone for about 5 minutes. Nina pawed at one end of the blanket, lifted it, and figured out what they were from the scents. She was confused how Ellen got them, but assumed that that was the reason she was sworn to secrecy. Nina did not know that the boxes of the Johnson's belongings were the least of Ellen's concerns.

Nina made a bed on top of one of the boxes and over hanging blanket so that the ride would not be so bumpy for her. The savannah couldn't be belted in place so she had to make sure that what she rested on would be relatively safe. Her weight made her sink into the box of stuffed toys, which made an even more comfortable bed. Nina couldn't help but smell Jack's sweet aroma coming from the old stuffed animals and wondered why it was so addictive and alluring to her. Nina looked forward to the trip even more now, inhaling the air from the box with every breath.

Ellen finally exited the white building with a box heavily laden with tubes and a gallon of some fluid as well as a hand pump. Several other things were heard but not seen inside the box as it was stowed away in the back.

Ellen made sure the hold was secure and got into the driver's side, interrupting Nina's furtive sniffs of Jack's stuff. She sat upright again and snorted out the traces of enticing scent to focus on the matter at hand.

"Ready?" Ellen said nervously, buckling up.

"Yeah. Just promise me one last time... you won't tell Albert on me?" Nina asked worriedly.

"I won't if you won't."

"Deal."

"Good, because it's gonna be dangerous for the both of us if word gets out." Ellen said putting the truck in neutral and letting it coast silently down the long driveway. At the end of the driveway, the road was going to gradually curve uphill again so Ellen had to turn on the truck and get it moving before the sentries were alerted by the sound of the engine. The cool air rushed by the big truck as they sped their way down the long road.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"I don't understand why we can't at least say goodbye."

"Because she would insist on coming with us. She might act like a fighter but she's as docile as a sparrow. She doesn't need to get into this mess, and someone needs to stay behind and tell the tale should we fail our mission."

"We should at least leave a note. I feel like such an asshole just to eat, sleep, and run."

"Language! And you don't have to worry about it, I'm leaving Ana some thank you money on the counter for her, for her hospitality and to maybe cover what troubles we have put her in." Henry said as he counted out the money and set it on the counter as Jack changed his clothes.

The dog was pacing anxiously around the house as the others were rushing about, getting their things together quickly and quietly. Jack got his shoes on as the first rays of sunlight were peeking through the curtains. Henry changed his clothes and nodded at Jack to check out the dog.

Dan was breathing heavily and dry heaving on the carpet, the dog then made his way clumsily over to the tile floor in the dining room. Jack entered after him and was grabbing some paper towels to clean up the mess that was sure to follow.

Suddenly the dog looked up at Jack with perfect clarity in the eyes. Jack stopped halfway through wetting the paper towel wad. Turning the faucet off slowly, he faced the dog expectantly.

"Iiii... miiigghhtt nooott haavve lonnngg... Bbrrinnngg mmeee aa maapp." Dustin said strenuously as he sat down with his head low.

Jack could tell instantly that he was conserving strength to hold onto the body long enough to get his message through.

"Stay there! There's one in the truck!" Jack said and ran into the spare bedroom. He grabbed the keys to the truck and ran past his dad smacking him jovially on the back, saying, "He's in the kitchen!" on his way out to the backyard.

"Hhheeennnrryyyyy..." Dustin said gritting his teeth.

"I'm here, I'm here... what is it?" Henry said dashing into the room and kneeling in front of the dog.

" _Mmmaaaapppp...... nnnooowwww.._." Dustin said looking up into Henry's eyes. He groaned, and steadied his feet in front of him. His whole body was shivering.

"Right here! Ok! Here we go." Jack said unfolding it as fast as he could and laying it down in front of the dog. He indicated several spots on the state map, where they were now at his aunt Ana's house, and where their old house was on the map.

"Can you see it ok, Dustin?" Henry asked optimistically.

Dustin put his wet nose to the map as Henry turned on the overhead light and even brought over a lamp to light it up better. Dustin stared at the map hard and zigzagged his nose slowly and thoughtfully over the vast wooded areas around the spot.

"Pppeennnccciiillll." he practically growled.

"Pencil? You want a pencil?"

Dustin nodded but kept his eyes on that one spot, briefly shifting weight from one foot to the other, contemplating on whether or not to point with his big clumsy paw. A pen was found and held in front of Dustin's face aiming down.

Still watching that same spot as if it was a bug to be squashed, he took the pen in his mouth and made a very crude circle around an area inside 'Kiki woods'. He dropped the pen and sighed happily. He relaxed his body and shook his head and neck as if getting water off of his coat. He grinned up at the two of them.

"Lllett's ggo." He was able to say a lot easier then the previous words.

"We're gone!" Henry said happily and scribbled out a thank you note for his sister-in-law. Jack gathered their things and led the dog outside. Henry kissed his hand and blew it at Ana's slumbering form in the large recliner and quickly followed Jack and Dustin out the back door, making sure to lock it securely.

Jack and Henry moved the loose fence out of the way as Dustin stopped and stared at the middle of the street in front of Ana's house. He cautiously walked out to the center of the road and laid down on the yellow street lines, looking at the street and then Ana's house.

"Dustin! We have to go!" Jack called out and went to go fetch the dog. He stopped short when he realized why Dustin would lay _there_.

He didn't know what to say. Henry glanced up and down the street to make sure there were no cars driving that early in the morning, and met up with the two on the road. There were no marks on the street, no cracks or stains in any way to indicate what had happened on that spot 3 years previously. Henry stood next to Jack and Dustin in the street and glanced back at his sister-in-law's house. Reluctantly imagining what his son would have seen from such a low spot. How it was to feel the hard street, the smell of it, and the futilely of trying to escape it on his own when he was so close to death.

"He's alive. I just know it." Jack muttered, more or less to himself.

"Whherree waas hee layyingg?" Dustin whispered sadly.

Jack wiped his eyes dry and said, "You're on it."

After a pause Dustin said, "Thouughtt sso."and laid his head back down to the street.

"Come on, we can't stay here... keep moving forward. The past is gone and so will be their future if we don't move now." Henry said holding out a hand for Jack to stand up. In turn, Jack leaned into Dustin and helped him up and together they went to the truck with new resolution. They will save them.

Henry hopped up into the cab and eased the truck and camper out of the backyard and down the driveway. Jack remembered to place the fence back where it should be and got into the truck after Dustin. All three of them marveled at Ana's equally magnificent front yard during the breaking rays of sunlight that Friday morning and found that there was a brown box of cookies and a packet of seed bulbs on their dashboard, labeled with her hand writing. 'Dig a 5 inch deep hole every foot, pack loosely with dirt, and water daily. They should bloom in 6 weeks'. Underneath she taped a photo of herself next to her prized blue Anthuriums, and on the back of it she wrote, 'Keep in touch! I love you all dearly so take care of yourselves and write to this old bird!'

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It was around 4 am Friday, and still very dark outside even though they had been driving for over a half hour. The sun had yet to shine, but already the air seemed to be warming up. The large garbage truck swayed this way and that along the gravel and grass road. It could barely be called a road now, but it was still fairly clear to follow.

Nina yawned out the window but still thoroughly enjoyed watching the surrounding lands fly by. The starlight outside was enough for her feline eyes to see for at least a mile in every direction. Nina guessed that they were going about 70 miles per hour and saw a dust cloud kicking up and being blown quickly away in the breeze. Very little vegetation grew there so the dust and sand choked the land for miles.

"You should sleep, we still have a ways to go." Ellen yawned.

"You're one to talk. Just don't crash ok?"

"I won't, I'm too nervous to sleep." Ellen turned the heat off in the cab, fearing that it would lull her to sleep and her mission would come to a crashing end. "Do you know how Edward was able to escape? Did they tell you?" Ellen asked suddenly.

"Oh, umm no. They probably thought that it would give me the idea on how to escape too."

"Yeah, derr... I suppose you're right. Well, he was sent on a mini mission by Albert and the magnetic wave scientists to see if he could change shape farther away from base. Most of us weren't told about every test so it's no surprise that the guys they sent had little to no idea on what to do. Personally I think Albert wanted to keep them in the dark to make for a more accurate test." Ellen said, then remembered some details, "They were couriers. Hired to do that job that day, anyone regularly employed with the Center would have known who Ed was, what he was... and what they would test him on on that trip. It would have altered the test results."

"What was he sent to do?" Nina stirred in her seat, now facing Ellen.

"Well, basically, the two guys were supposed to find a spot out in the middle of nowhere and drop off 'the cat'. Then Ed was supposed to leave the guys in the car and after a few minutes return without the two guys spotting him. He needed to watch them while they were waiting for the time to pick him up 4 hours later at a different location. Albert sent the men off knowing that they couldn't just sit in a car for 4 hours so it was up to Ed to track the men and report back every little thing they did once he returned to base. The magnetic wave was going to be turned on half way through the mission to see if Edward could find clothes for his human form without being caught and to return to the car and convince the men to give 'the boy' a ride. Once in the car he was to disable the men and drive them back to base using the locator beacon built into the car's dashboard. You could say, kidnap the fake kidnappers." Ellen said and turned down a side road that was little more then 2 parallel dirt trails off in the distance. Perfectly hidden where your eyes don't go.

Ellen continued, "I think that the mission was actually quite brilliant. You have Edward doing all of the tasks he would need to do if he were sent out on real missions. Hide in plain sight, observe and report, ingratiate himself into people's lives with his innate good nature and then to take them out and bring them back to base." Ellen surprised herself with a laugh and said, "I may not like everything that they were doing but I have to admit they were efficient."

"Not always. There was one time when they told me at the end of my mission that I had to wait for the ok to get onto a bus. The bus was right there, no one but the driver inside it, and I had to wait around forever to see if it was safe. I found out later it was because my escorts were gambling just a block away and forgot about me entirely. I sat at that station for a full hour, trying not to raise suspicion or get kidnapped, all because the damn guys couldn't stop betting. Do you know how hard it is to be a young kid, a _young girl_ , in Kubalis?"

"Um no, I can't say I do."

"Perverts. All of 'em. I was lucky that the streets were mostly empty and I only had to beat up 4 assholes." Nina said.

"4? By yourself?"

"Yeah, easy as spit. But it sucks having to explain to the next guy why somebody's body is lying in the street and bleeding from his nose. Pretty soon it was a freaking pile of bleeding noses. Eventually my escorts came around, poor as piss and expecting me to call Albert for more money for 'the mission'."

Ellen just started to laugh and hit the wheel with her palms.

"What's that for?"

"Your mission was called 'blitz mosh momken abadan.' Albert says it's basically 'the end of the tour.' It was to see how you dealt with delays so close to the end of the mission, among other things. Which describes how you're feeling, you know, about apparent lack of authority when you're out there. I don't blame you for getting fed up with them." Ellen said sympathetically giggling. She kind of figured that Nina would resort to quick violence rather then long drawn out explanations.

"So what was Ed's mission called? I didn't know they had names."

"His was called, 'Valse de la lune'. I liked it, it means, 'Waltz in the Moonlight'. The mission was supposed to be going on from 7-11 pm." She said. "When the two men that were responsible for taking Ed to the drop off point failed, they picked up a different black and gray striped cat from a shelter and tried to pass it off for Ed. Of course Albert knew right away that the stray wasn't Ed, and when they failed to remember exactly where he was lost, Albert immediately had them brainwashed into thinking that they worked for them, basically as slaves for the Center, demoting them as far as possible. Of course not a whole lot of us knew that the higher ups were shanghaiing some idiots into servitude. We would have revolted back then..." she stopped herself from mentioning that there might be a revolt in the near future. Ellen was just glad that Nina now has a chance to avoid the possible fallout, so long as they kept talking about freedom and the truth about the Center. Ellen perked up her tone, "You probably had seen them around, that guy Edward beat up with the one eye and that other one, I forget their original real names now because they were assigned different ones as a kind of odd punishment. Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb-ass. Not the most clever, but it fits." Ellen laughed a bit more.

"Yeah, I just remember hearing people call them Teed and Teedas, Teedas is the one eyed guy. I don't remember much from that time. I was pretty young." Nina now recalled her first clear memory, when she was on the table being operated on, she guessed it was well after she was originally 'born' because she wasn't a baby at that time. She was at least the equivalent of a 4 year old human from what she remembered seeing of herself. She wondered what Ed's own first memory was.

"We're almost there." Ellen said and stopped the truck just short of a line up of poles. She got out of the truck and kept Nina from following her.

"I have to see if it's safe for you to come through the line. Wait in here." She went around back of the dump truck and produced a long dirty metal rake. Cautiously aiming the head of the rake out ahead, sweeping it back and forth in the air in front, she walked towards the 3 foot tall pole line that extended far out in either direction.

The headlights of the truck illuminated a good sized area, but the pitch blackness of the desert gave the whole field a creepy feeling. Ellen held her breath as she got closer to the heads of the poles with the rake head and tapped the top, once she was within range. When nothing happened she went to the pole on the opposite side of the road and tapped that one too. Nothing continued to happen. She smiled and went back to the truck. "It's safe, we can go in." She said and drove carefully through the perimeter towards what appeared to be an old, long abandoned military town.

They could only see what the headlights revealed but even so they knew that the whole town would be in shambles. All of the houses were in very poor condition, many were already falling in on themselves. Down the main road, they could see trace evidence of truck tires that had recently parked close to what could be the center of the neighborhood. There was a playground off to one side, complete with rusted swing set and slide. A rough jungle gym, and merry go round rested in pieces next to a few metal sitting areas that glinted in the light from the headlights. Ellen parked on the same spot that the previous trucks parked so as to mask their arrival better. She instructed Nina to only walk on the footprints that she would make. That way Ellen could step in those same steps when they were done and their presence would not be easily detected.

Nina liked the way Ellen was thinking and her heart started to pound a bit harder. The thrill of being involved in a super secret mission was intoxicating.

Ellen shivered as she went around to the rear of the truck and brought the box out that she had loaded up from the white building at Site B. She gave a determined sigh and said, "Follow me," to the befuddled Nina.

Nina hopped around in only Ellen's tracks leading off down the main road and then took a turn down a narrow alley. It opened up between two houses and Ellen stopped short of going further. She was shivering uncontrollably now and not just because of the cold night air. She put on a respirator mask that she had packed in the box and then pulled out the large container filled with liquid that sloshed around. "If you don't want to wear a mask you have to stay back about 30 feet. If you want to watch, I have a spare mask that might fit you, but it will be uncomfortable."

"Let's try the mask." Nina said willingly and was fitted with a white fabric respirator mask. Ellen doubled up the elastic band around Nina's head because it was naturally smaller then a human's. Nina tried not to squirm when the elastic pinched at her fur behind her ears and once the mask was on, she shook her head gently to untangle those stray hairs.

"Ok... here goes." Ellen said putting on a pair of thick rubber gloves and then picked up the box. Together they went down the alleyway. Ellen was visibly shaking and Nina was shocked to see what laid there in the alleyway.

 

After the gruesome work was finished, both Ellen and Nina quickly looked around the area and found a small dead branch they could use, and were able to sweep away all traces of their presence. Ellen picked up the box with the nearly empty jug and the spent tubes and ran back to the truck, not waiting for Nina.

Ellen sobbed for a while as Nina carefully swept the footprints that they made with her tail as she left that spot. Flicking it about to get the bits of sand and dust from the inner layers of fur. She shivered too and sat down in front of Ellen.

"You ok?" Nina asked quietly looking up at her.

"Yeah... I will be... it's just... it had to be done. I hope it works." She said wiping her face and dusting off her clothes. "You know what to do right? And if it fails you must stay as far away from the Center as possible. Understand me? In fact... this will probably be your only chance to be free from them. No matter what happens, you _must not_ return there again. _Promise me that_." Ellen said with heartfelt earnestness and fresh tears trickling down her checks.

"Yes. I promise... but don't worry so much. It'll all work out in the end. I just know it." Nina said, confident that their plan will work.

Ellen forced a smile and then got into the truck's cab. She then drove it around to a different part of the town, and unloaded the numerous boxes from the truck's hold into an abandoned day-care center. She then drove back to the spot where she left Nina and gave her the spare set of clothes, should she shift into a human, then gave her a warm blanket for the night. Ellen knelt down and gave Nina a big hug. She immediately apologized and put her back down, remembering that Nina was not a big hugger. Ellen picked up and threw the chemical box haphazardly into the back of the truck along with a large black bag and some other stuff. They could hear the bottle smash in the now vast, empty space.

Nina waved Ellen goodbye as she got back onto the dirt road. Ellen reluctantly yawned and rolled down the window for the cold night air to keep her up, but also kept pinching herself to stay awake. The only thing she could think about was Dustin and how he was doing. If he ever did find the father and brother, now that the Center definitely had Edward and the mother. It was hard to tell what was going on out there.

"I just hope that they aren't anywhere near the Center. It's nothing but a death trap."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Well here it is. This must be it. It's the only cabin in these woods and it obviously has had heavy travel on the road leading up to it." Henry said looking through a pair of binoculars.

"The Center." Jack said unhappily. Even though they had been searching for it constantly for several days, he was not glad to find it. It was the need to find it for their family's sake that urged them forward.

"This is it, right Dustin?" Henry asked the dog.

Dustin was able to nod slightly but it was apparent that it was taking a huge amount of concentration to move the head.

"I wish Dan would let go for awhile. I mean... he can take back control once we've got them safe and sound... at least for a day or two. Right, Dustin?"

Dustin cocked his head and nodded slowly again. He was trying to make some headway in his communications with the host body but it was a strained one at the best of times. It almost seemed to be an all or nothing relationship. Once one was in control, the other one was 'asleep' most of the time, subconsciously wanting control again until the first let up his grip of the body.

It then occurred to Dustin that he was trying to push Dan instead of asking him to give up control. He relaxed just a bit and shut his eyes for a few minutes as he heard Henry and Jack get their weapons ready. The anxiety of the situation that was about to happen was stressing him out, but he knew in order for them to get in unharmed he had to have full and free control of the body. Their success would be nearly guaranteed if Dan would not interrupt when they are at a critical point inside the Center.

'Ok pup. This is important. Very important. So listen up.' Dustin took a breath. 'Can you understand me?' He waited quietly for a response.

He felt that he had received a 'yes' from the mind of the dog. Dustin was elated and tried to keep it simple for the dog to understand.

'Ed is in danger. I can help him. Let me... have control.' Dustin thought into the darkness. He waited as the inhabited black space behind his eyes gave the impression of a question. Dan doesn't understand.

'Let me lead. Let me lead. I can help them.' Dustin thought slowly, letting the impression of the idea sink into Dan's mind. He could faintly hear the sounds of Henry and Jack's voices and ignored those auditory words. He concentrated hard on the only in-audible opinion that mattered to him at that moment. After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity in the void, an answer came back to Dustin.

'yes.'

The tail thumped the ground happily and the dog jumped around both Jack and Henry in sheer happiness. Panting and wiggling with excitement and pride to be able to talk to each other.

"Whoa there! Dan get down! Down!" Jack gave a hoarse call. He assumed Dan was in control because of the sheer dumb dog antics, apparently wanting to play tag with them.

"Iiitt'sss mee! Hee'ss lettiinng mme hhavve coontroll! Llett'ss ggo!" Dustin said happily and bound quickly towards the cabin's rear door.

Both Jack and Henry followed after, carrying their guns out in front but pointing to the ground in fear of accidentally shooting the dog. They hid behind a large tree when they saw a camera perched high up on the chimney of the cabin. Dustin scampered happily back to them and nudged them to follow him.

"Dustin! You don't see that camera up there? We can't go that way."

"Iii diissabbled itt whhenn Iii lleft. Huurryy! Bbefforre thee guarrdds comme ouut." Dustin said and led the way across the long driveway and up to the rear porch of the cabin.

He held up a paw for them to wait for him to do something. Dustin got down on his belly and inched his way towards the house going down an apparently intricate pathway that wasn't marked out by anything laying on the ground. Both Jack and Henry assumed there must be a laser grid set up at odd angles, and it was lucky for them that the dog was small enough to avoid them. Dustin snuffed at the ground close to where a small black box was hidden in a flowerpot next to the porch. He carefully stepped over it and squeezed and crawled slowly past the rungs on one side of the porch and peeked inside the window just overhead. He couldn't see any movement, but waited for a few more minutes to see if anyone would show up in the monitor station set up in the bedroom.

He smiled and slunk back on the same invisible path to where Jack and Henry sat in a privet bush. "Ii ssett upp thhe seecuritty ovveridde ttoo respoonnd too aaa vvoicce commandd."

"Like a password? Would it let us in?"

"Yeess. Saayy thhee worrds clleearly annd thhenn duucck."

"Ok, why do we have to duck?"

"Iiitt's bettter iff youu donn't knnow... sayyy 'Piilllgrrimm ssnoow.'"

"What? Pill grim slow?"

"Nooo pillgrrim snnnnow."

"What does that mean?"

"It'ss aa sonng Iii liiiked." Dustin shrugged and smiled up at them. He then said that Jack should be the one to go because he was more likely to get down onto the ground faster. Once he was psyched and ready to go, Dustin went back to the porch, following that invisible path, and waited next to the door with the largest rock he could carry in his mouth. He nodded at Jack, and made the rock ready to go, next to the lower part of the door's opening.

Jack ran out directly in front of the door and practically shouted, "Pilgrim Snow!" Then dove to the ground as a split second later a horizontal spray of bullets cut down some saplings directly behind the spot where Jack's head was.

Henry shouted surprised obscenities at Dustin and saw the dog quickly shove the rock in the door frame, keeping the door 6 inches ajar after the machine gun was automatically retracted back into the cabin. Dustin squeezed in through the narrow opening, growling like mad.

Jack was shaking and breathing as fast as his lungs would allow as he peeled his hands back from the sides of his head. His ears were ringing very loudly in his head and he thought he cracked a rib hitting the dirt as fast as he did. "What... the... fuck?!" He shouted at the dog, but now saw Dustin jump up earnestly and repeatedly at something just inside the cabin door.

A few tense seconds later they heard a loud bang and clamoring metal. Both Henry and Jack ran towards the door, ducking the whole way and threw open the door to find Dustin sitting proudly next to a hopelessly broken robotic arm, and a machine gun laying on its side, as if the metal things were his fresh kill.

"Ookaay _nooww_ wwe cann ggo inn." He said triumphantly, tail wagging away.

Jack cuffed the dog in the back of the head and snatched the machine gun up from the floor. "Why did you have me shout those words if it was just going to shoot at me anyway?"

"Beecauuse therre werree suppossed too bbe eiighhtt ggunnss fiiireinng inn aall diirrectioons. Nnott juust onne inn aa straaighht linne." Dustin explained, pointing out the heavier artillery that was hidden from sight that was triggered to fire from every wall and corner of the house with an added grenade launcher from the cabin's chimney if someone had managed to get inside without permission. That one was designed to destroy the cabin entirely while leaving the Center below safe from invaders, giving their outside men enough time to come to the rescue, or as a fail-safe if something terrible happened at the Center, burying it under tons of rubble.

Henry located a spare magazine barrel for the gun in a wooden crate next to the door. He handed Jack his revolver and took the machine gun for himself. Henry shook his head at Dustin and gave a smile. "Don't scare us like that again ya mongrel."

"Doonn't calll mee monngrell." Dustin smirked as he led the way to the front bedroom/elevator. Inside the cabin, he made sure he was first to go into any room and would wag the tail once for them to follow if the coast was clear. He would raise it high if he was alerted to a potential threat to them. Dustin was pretty brave for going in first and unarmed but he felt that his own life wasn't worth much if he put these innocent people in harms way. After all, he did work for the Center and knew the layout better then anyone because he had helped design and build it.

Jack's ears were ringing the whole time they were inside the cabin and all the way down the elevator. He inadvertently started to speak louder to them because he wasn't sure they could hear him above the loud ringing. Henry raised his finger to his lips to keep it down and hoisted the machine gun waist level as Jack lifted his revolvers up to see through the sights of both guns. Feeling very much like he was in an action movie, even though this was infinitely more dangerous.

The elevator doors opened and Dustin darted out first and scoped out the whole first level area before returning to fetch them. They followed him down the long halls and up and down the stairs searching every room.

At each turn and new room they entered, Dustin became more and more agitated and nervous. He thought that the troops were planning a surprise attack just around every corner. He was so scared of being surrounded that he failed to notice the lack of medical gear and machines. The three of them double checked all of the rooms and came to the sad realization that no one was there. They didn't know how long it had been left empty and they wondered if Dustin was loosing his mind. It was a very real possibility that he had lost some important memories and that a mistake was made somewhere. They feared it would prove to be a fatal mistake and made their way slowly back to the elevator. They had spent hours scouring the few papers left behind, and could find no hint as to where they were now located.

They could only figure that the place was recently cleaned because of the lemony scent that still lingered in the rooms. That one thing truly baffled them; why would they bother tidying up when the whole place was in shambles.

Before leaving the detention ward, Dustin led them to the cell that he had occupied along with the other cells that once held Janet and Frank North. He stuck around for a few minutes staring at Frank's old cell and hoped that Mr. Skullivan had made Frank's transition back to shop owner seamless.

As they were leaving the cabin, Dustin had a stray thought and chuffed a few times. Jack and Henry thought he was crying so they let him lag behind. 'That's where I would take him for the tests.' Dustin abruptly remembered his conversation with Ellen and prayed that she followed through with his plan.

 

 

 

 


	23. His Fatal Mistake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They stared at each other for an eternity.
> 
> Finally, Edward spoke. "You left me for dead."

Chapter 23 His fatal mistake

 

 

 

"Well rested my boy?"

"Yeah. What should we do today?"

"First you need a big meal in that scraggily body. Then I will show you."

As they made their way downstairs, they could hear other people finish eating breakfast and getting ready for the full day ahead. Most of them were getting on camouflage gear and clothes and giving odd looks at the boy. Some seemed judgmental, and a few of the women looked sad.

The boy shrugged at them and made for the kitchen. There he was greeted with a large plate of smoked swordfish and a side of green olives with the red pimento centers. He stared at the odd combination as a nagging thought tugged at him. He was handed a huge thermos of grape Pangal Blaster and sent to a small side room to eat by himself. He sat down at one of 2 chairs at the table that had been used as the kiddy table the night before, and cut off a small square of the fish. He was about to chomp down on it when Albert entered, slightly tipsy, and sat across from him with a half emptied bottle of scotch.

"Eat up. You don't have to talk, just listen alright?" Albert slurred.

The boy nodded and gave a grin as he savored the expensive smoked fish.

Albert took a pull on the bottle and steadied himself on the sides of the table as he looked at the boy eating as carefree as a toddler. 'Damn them for making me break it.' he thought. He sat there and waited until the boy was nearly done with his food and watched as the boy kept looking up at him with those big emerald slit eyes. The pupils were so large, they looked more rounded and human-like in the dimness. They both heard people pass by the room in apparent haste with machinery clinking as it hit bits of metal on their outfits.

Albert leaned over and shut the door and then flipped on the swinging light overhead. It put out inferior light and sent ominous shadows in every direction. It had the gall to give the room an unpleasant feeling, as if something invisible was about to jump out from the shadows cast by the swinging lamp shade. Albert took a deep breath and another pull on the drink just for his own self distraction.

"What have you learned from your training in that little Amystriss?"

The boy looked up and swallowed the masticated mouthful of olives. "Mmm? What Sir?" He wiped his mouth and took a sip of the power drink to clear his throat.

"Your 3 years of training. Did you fit in?"

The boy quietly put down his fork and shoved the plate gently to one side of the table. "Yes." He said with downcast eyes.

"So you are aware of your time with them?"

He hesitated. "Y...es." He glanced up briefly.

"Do you know why you are here?" Albert asked, slowly swirling the liquor in the bottle around. Watching him through the lower half of the bottle. The boy's figure was distorted and shaken.

"I am here to do whatever it is you ask of me."

Albert continued, with a clear succinct tone, "That's not what I asked. Do you remember why you are here." He thumped the bottle heavily on the table and leaned forward, forcing eye contact with the boy.

"You know why I'm here." Edward glared right back at Albert who smirked in response.

"Thought so. I had a hunch that you would snap out of it sooner or later, _Edward_." Albert gave a quick laugh, "You owe me 2 grand." he smirked again and offered him the bottle of scotch.

"I'm not old enough..." Edward admonished.

Albert proffered it again and when Ed leaned back in distaste, Albert poured the scotch into the Pangal Blaster and swished it around so it made a cocktail.

"You're gonna need it kid." He said and finished off what was left in the bottle.

Ed sighed and started to take a sip. Albert lifted the bottom end of the thermos and Edward accidentally took a huge gulp of the mixture. Coughing and sputtering, he put it back down and gave an odd look at Albert. Eventually he was able to speak. "Not so bad." He choked out and took another long swig of it and offered Albert the rest.

Albert drank it up in one go and wiped his mouth. "Not bad at all. I'll have to remember that grape Pangal and Oakago scotch go well together. Ok Edward, back to work..." Albert looked sullenly at Edward.

"Yeah." He said as he sat upright, paying close attention.

"There is a privately owned chunk of land located in the lifeless part of the desert. There's no one living even remotely close to that location, so don't bother with escape plans. Back in the forties and fifties there were many army built towns all over the country to house soldiers and their families during wartime. Most of those small towns have been either demolished for materials, expanded into encroaching cities or simply abandoned to be reclaimed by the land. No one travels to the one we're going to because there isn't anything there worth the trip." Albert explained.

"So the Center was one of these locations?"

"No no, they couldn't afford to build an underground facility like that back then. Use your head. What I'm saying is that we're going to one of those army ghost towns. I managed to buy the land very cheap from the government, provided I keep it privately owned. What lays still buried underground may be inert but it isn't any less radioactive if it's uncovered." Albert said making a mushroom cloud shadow with his hands and the light from the lamp.

"You're kidding." Edward said gawking.

"Of course I'm kidding! Damn you're gullible." Albert laughed heartily. "They took those bombs out years ago. But seriously, don't go poking around too much." He wagged a finger at him.

Ed couldn't tell if he was joking or not but decided to best err on the side of caution. He didn't want to end up with any more extra appendages. His tail decided to flick around at that moment to emphasize the point.

"So what's the deal? Why are we going there?" Edward asked.

"It's for your final test. They want to make sure that you are able to follow orders when push comes to shove. They will accompany you out there." Albert said thumbing at the door to the men and women getting together MRE's and ammunition. "Now I know you can take down people in sparring matches with no problem, but even I know that when people are fighting for something important it's going to take more then fast moves and fangs." Albert disclosed as if it were fatherly advice. "Here are the rules. You may not leave the perimeter around that ghost town. It's set up to ensure that you stay within it and I wouldn't recommend testing it's capabilities. Don't even get close to the poles. Next rule, you will have to find a man in that town and take him out, permanently. You should probably make as big of a mess as possible." He said, definitively ending his fatherly tone of voice.

Ed's stomach churned, he picked at what was left of his food to distract himself. "How will I know which guy it is?"

"You will know. He will be unarmed, but that won't matter much. He is a strong son of a bitch. I recommend a surprise attack."

"So I just go in and attack the first person I see?"

"The unarmed one. If you attack an armed one they have full permission to shoot yer ass. They'll think you've gone feral again. Now shut up and let me finish. They don't want you to just go in and attack some random man. This is the part where you're supposed to be a good spy. Now when you get there, think about it alright? Next rule. You will have one hour to complete this test. There will be a loud buzzer at every quarter hour and then the last one will be a few minutes before the end. If you succeed, then they have other stuff planned for you, I am not clear of what they are yet, some other minor tests or training scenarios that need the hot dry land."

Edward considered his options, "What happens if I don't kill him?"

Albert took Edward's wrist in his hand and firmly held on so Edward would pay close attention. Ed apparently forgot some of their conversation from early Thursday morning. Albert leaned forward slightly and then lowered his head to face Edward eye to eye. "If you fail, they will shoot Janet Johnson." He revealed sadly.

Shocked and panic-stricken, Edward tried to scramble away from the table to search for his mother.

"Sit down Fifteen!" Albert scolded in hushed tones as he twisted Edward's arm behind his back and forced him back to his chair. Ed's arm was on fire with the pain but kept squirming to free himself and get out.

"She's not even here. They took her to the site this morning so sit your ass down!" Albert let go of Edward and he fell off balance onto the ground in front of Albert's chair.

"You bastard! How could you let them do this?! You promised she would go free!" Edward shouted up at him.

Albert slapped Ed's face to keep him quiet. With a urgent and angry tone he said, "Listen to me Edward! I am _not_ the one in charge anymore remember? It's not my call. My job is to make sure that _you do your job_ , get it?"

"I thought that the Center only goes after the bad guys! What the hell has she ever done to deserve this?"

"There are casualties of war every day. Best I could do is to get them to take her off of their list of candidates. Now _that_ favor cost me. It's plain bad luck that she was a great candidate, the council was unwilling to loose her. I made a deal with them, you don't need to know what I had to give up, but once you pass their test then she'll be alright." Albert said and blocked the door. "Look, a soldier does his job, and by doing your job you will save her life and her mind. Understand? Besides, this man that they are sending you in after is no saint. Trust me. When you meet him, I know for a fact that you will have another good reason to kill him."

"What happens if I do kill him? What then?"

"We let Janet Johnson go free. Her memory will be wiped from the whole event and she'll be safely sent back home. She won't remember any of this happening," Albert put a hand on Ed's quivering shoulder, "and she won't remember you."

Edward turned away and hung his head for the longest time. Watching from blurred eyes the droplets of salty water fall to his feet. 'Either way I lose her.' He was aware of Albert leaving the room after an uneasy moment. Beyond the door, some orders were given and faint sounds of several heavy duty trucks revving. He thought he heard someone ask where Nina was, but couldn't clearly hear the answer if there was one.

The door opened a few minutes later and a set of lightweight camouflage clothes and a pair of the smallest boots they had were brought in by a young soldier in training. She set them on the table and gave him a friendly salute to him saying, "Good luck Fifteen."

When the door had shut after her, he growled as low as he could at her upbeat encouragement.

"Just do the job. Just get it done and over with. After all, it's not the first time I had ki-..." He stopped short and stood still as he waited for the nausea to fade, then spat on the floor. "Not the first time I've done _that_ before." and left it at that.

He was eventually escorted out of the house to a huge white van and was seated in the middle of 6 heavily armed men all staring intently at him.

"At ease gentlemen." saluting them all in turn. He tried to act the way he had when he was 'Fifteen' and not now, being his more comfortable self, Edward. It just now occurred to him that he had an alter ego and had to play that role convincingly. 'Edward' was adverse to fighting and killing, but 'Fifteen' apparently was not. Ed just wished that Fifteen would go back into hiding once this was all over.

The van doors shut and he stirred around in his seat for a second and was uncomfortable. He then abruptly stood up in the van and in an instant he heard the clacking sound of all 6 hammers pulled back on their pistols and rifles aiming straight it at his head.

"Whoa! Whoa! Fuck me you guys are scary!" He said quivering with his hands up. He then lowered them very slowly and brought his long completely fluffed out tail out of his pant leg and around in front of him so he could sit down easier. He smiled while nodding at each barrel as he bent his tail from its petrified state and curled it on his lap. Holding it down forcibly so it wouldn't twitch and get him shot. "Just getting it out of the way." He informed sedately despite trembling nervously.

The men lowered their primed guns and put the safety back on the weapons. Edward was sweating profusely the whole ride there. Eventually he tried to start up several light conversations with the men in hopes of gaining a bit of trust, or maybe even a little sympathy. But they were as straight faced as any Gothic museum statue.

'They should make plaster molds of these guys, freakin Greek gods under those army clothes.' Edward thought as his knobby knees banged together. Wishing that he had some kind of build he could be proud of, he was consoled by the fact that the techniques he had learned in training gave him a leg up on winning fights with grown men instead of boys... like Jack. Like a bad catch 22, he had to put off all thoughts of family now and forevermore if he was to save them. It wasn't easy.

Half an hour's drive later, the stale air of the van was dissipated with the opening of the front windows. In spite of the best efforts of the van's air conditioner, it wasn't enough to counteract the heat of the desert sun beating down on the metal container filled with 8 sweating men and Ed stuck in the middle. The rushing air outside was hot, but at least it was dry and fresh.

Edward tried not to make a show of it but he wanted to at least smell out where they might be, to identify the area by its scents or lack thereof. 'Well we're definitely in the desert. I can't smell a great deal of living plants, and the dirt tastes old and dead in my mouth.' He spat out the particulates that had reformed into a paste in his nose and mouth while deeply inhaling the outside air.

Another hour passed and another and the air seemed even more dead and dry then before. Edward could hear the head vehicle's announcement that they had arrived at the town and to wait while the fence was deactivated so they could enter. Ed took the time to tuck in his tail back inside his pants to look more distinguished and to please the council. After a few minutes there was an all clear bell and their van followed the lead into the town and parked next to what appeared to be a rusted playground. Edward could just barely see a few buildings and tents that were set up for the scientists and soldiers off to one side of the open area. He watched as men and women were busy outside setting up additional equipment and wondered why they needed such a huge generator. He heard a faint hum and someone announce that the fence was turned back on.

He gulped audibly as he realized that the generator was just for the fence. Albert wasn't kidding about steering clear of it. A short while later, the rear doors to the van were opened and 2 of the men jumped out. Aiming their rifles at Edward's head, the rest of the men in the van followed him out. He held up his hands to show he wasn't going to try anything and wished that they would see that he was on their side and that the guns were unnecessary.

Then he caught it. There, in a very very faint breeze across the playground, he caught the scent of his mother. His eyes widened and his heart raced. She was there. Albert wasn't lying. He suppressed the raging urge to fight off every man here to find her because he knew that it was useless. A low growl couldn't be contained so he shuffled his feet as he was escorted over to the tent.

"I trust Albert gave you the set of rules?"

"Yes Sir."

"One hour. Find the target and kill him. We know you can't carry him back here so come back and lead us to the kill site before that hour is up. If you fail, we will shoot Janet Johnson. And then you. Understand?" The councilman in the smug white lab coat said. His lip curled into a sickening grin. The council knew that since Fifteen did not want to fight or hurt any females in the sparring match's yesterday, having a woman killed would be intolerable. They briefed him on some other details so he was clear on the matter.

"I trust you will make us very proud, Fifteen." Another man said that was seated next to the first. Some soldiers holstered their weapons as a stopwatch was produced and clicked just as a very loud buzzer went off overhead from the old army speaker system. As everyone clutched their ears, Edward made a dash for the first row of houses he saw beside himself.

There wasn't any time to lose. He checked inside each of the houses and backyard storm shelters on that block, and was discouraged to find nothing at all inside. He had hoped that in at least one of the houses there remained a usable knife in its kitchen, or anything he could use as a weapon. All of the wood making up the houses and the remnants of furniture were so brittle from time and the weather that he couldn't use them as spears and was fearful that if he removed anything from the various houses, they would fall like a stack of cards. Simply leaping onto a storage garage to see further off in the distance made it lean to the side and he leaped off in time to see it crumble to the ground.

All of the houses appeared to have termite damage as well as destruction from the multiple dust clouds and vandalism. There was hardly a window around that wasn't shattered to pieces. He had to watch very carefully where he stepped. The boots that they gave him to wear were too big for him and made him stumble frequently. Finally he took them off and threw them aside as he continued his search for some sign of life in that contemptible town.

He was told that there would be no one wandering around the town besides his target, but he kept seeing a fleeting glimpse of movement. Always beyond his sight and behind shadows. The wind was picking up a bit so he couldn't locate it by the scent it must have been putting off. It seemed to be always downwind of him. He circled the

whole town and came close to what appeared to be the fence line.

He made sure to stay a safe distance from it, but wanted to see what all the fuss was about. All he could see was a series of poles that were sticking up from the ground. He inched closer to get a better look and felt a strange tingling go through his entire body. Almost unperceivable, he couldn't see its effects on him but it gradually became clear what it was when he became very lightheaded.

Each pole was made of thick aluminum about 3 feet tall, buried another 3 feet to anchor them. On the top of each pole rested a very very strong magnetic disk connected to a cable to the base of the poles. A separate power line was tied around the base of each pole in the line in a closed electrical circuit. The individual cables for the magnets looked to be about 7 feet long. Each pole and magnet set was about 6 feet apart from the next to ensure that anything that attracts magnets would be unable to get past them without the magnets flying off and sticking to it.

Edward remembered seeing similar poles 8 feet apart to allow the vehicles to pass into the town. He realized that because the magnets were strengthened by the electric current now running through it, they would be too powerful for him to fight against or pull off by himself.

Already his mind was getting increasingly cloudy, so he backed up further from the magnets. He shook his head as he admired their ingenuity at using his unique weakness against him. Normal humans and animals would be unaffected by the magnets, but if he were to pass by them, even at top speeds, they would shoot straight at him and attach to his body. Forcing him to transform in the most painful way and thereby pinning him down as the next pole's magnet would shoot out at him as well. He would be helpless to escape it and shuddered at the thought of the forced transformation. It was just like his incident just days ago with the huge magnet at the end of the crane's arm that Jack had accidentally turned on.

He forgave Jack for the mistake but would never forget the huge humming black magnet swinging him helplessly over the ground. He left the fence and spat at it. Amazed that the spittle was sucked in instantly by one of the magnetic disks and was smeared all over the outside of it.

"Damn." He muttered as he hightailed it out of there.

Another row of houses after another and still no one was around. He heard a deafening buzz go off to his right and realized that he only had 45 minutes to go. He ran in houses and sheds, checked every bedroom and cellar. The smells from the makeshift camp were now mixing with his surroundings and throwing him off. He couldn't rely on his sense of smell to detect that man so he opted for tracking.

'But where to start?' He thought about where they would have the man enter the town. The front gate would be too obvious. He then considered that they would think that it was too obvious so it would actually be the perfect place to start from.

He made a wide loop down what used to be the school and slunk as quietly as possible to the main entry way. All he could see were the tire tracks of all the vehicles and trucks that came through. But there was one set of prints lingering around one of the poles at the entryway and then at the other. They weren't the prints made by army boots or rough terrain shoes. They looked almost like sandal prints. He tried to identify which truck tracks they lead to and followed it around close to the camp. He let his tail out so he could balance better, then leaped up onto the roofs of the sturdier looking houses so the men inside the tents wouldn't see him. He sniffed around and smelled a hint of someone he had just met the day before.

'That woman. Why was she here?' He thought as he followed the scent behind the camp and lost it among the soldiers. 'Ah well. Wait... was she the one I was supposed to go after and not some guy? I hope not, because she seemed really nice.' He snuck away from the camp and down the other side of town to keep searching.

'No, Albert definitely said it was a man. He said I would have a reason to kill him. But I don't want to kill anyone. Who would he think I hated so much?' He wondered as he searched around the original rocket launching pads for the army base. He avoided direct contact with them but curiosity drew him in to take a look. He marveled at the sight of one of the opened chambers. Sure enough the rocket was missing but it was very clear that it was once there. It wasn't just Albert pulling his leg. He dusted off his feet once he got to the edge of the empty lot and heard the 30 minute alarm go off.

"Shit!" He said as he went back to frantically searching that area of town. Still nothing.

He was about to give up hope when he saw a bent over figure tending one of the poles at the fence line. He was almost happy to finally find the guy but then was reluctant to approach him. He hung around a safe distance away, waiting for the man to turn around.

'He is not armed... and he isn't wearing a white coat or camouflage gear like the rest of them were wearing. So this must be the man I was sent in to kill.' he thought as he watched him.

'But what did this guy do to piss off the Center enough to have him executed? They must have said some pretty convincing lies to get him to come to this deserted ghost town by himself because I have not seen him at either the Center or Site B. He must work for the Center because who else would be out here? Tending their fence? He looks like a groundskeeper but I don't see any plants here to tend to and this place is so far from civilization that it couldn't possibly be some random guy.' He thought. 'No. This must be the guy I'm supposed to kill. But it still doesn't make any sense, this guy looks mean, sure, but harmless.'

Edward watched from a safe distance as the man in overalls reconnected the magnetic disk to the pole with a pair of plastic pliers. He dusted his knees off as he stood back up. He then kicked the pole and smirked when it refused to budge. "That autta hold it." He said under his breath at the pole. "Who the fuck are you?"

Edward was shocked that he was spotted and was about to sneak away when he heard the guy laugh.

"How the hell did a piss ant runt like you get way the fuck out here? Go home

ya filthy runt!" He shouted as he picked up his tool belt and walked right past Edward. He saw the man's name tag and job class on his dirty overalls:

Teedas

Groundskeeper.

His shadow completely covered Ed for a second and made him shrink back.

"I said get lost!" The big man said and hit Ed hard on the back.

Ed was almost knocked over and stumbled to his knees growling at the asshole. He suddenly caught a whiff of scent coming off of the man's shoes and his eyes went wide and his body went limp.

Memories flashed rapidly past him in a swirling torrent of hatred. Extreme pain and agony. The sound of screams and screeching tires. The smell of that bastard's feet as he kicked Edward's small feline body against the car door and broke his ribs. The feel of the man's blows on his head and the smell of the asshole's blood on his claws.

Edward jerked his head upwards and saw the glass eye. " _You!_ " he shouted like a man possessed.The anger washed over him like dark waves, pulsing and fading as they crested behind his ears and neck. His skull tingled with every heart beat and his body quivered with seething rage.

"What the hell are you on about? Looks like you got something on your mind." Teedas said over his shoulder.

Thoughts were racing around his head. Edward knew that this man 'Teedas' didn't recognize him at all. When they had fought he was in his feline form and they hadn't met previously before. Edward didn't sense or smell this bastard at the Center or at Site B so they must have planned all along for Edward to kill him. If Ed had gotten to know him at the Center, he might have changed his mind, or attacked when he wasn't yet ready for the fight.

'That's why they had me spar for the whole day yesterday! They didn't think I could take down this asshole then! That's such fucking bullshit. I'd have had no problem before and I certainly don't have any problem now!' Edward crouched down and growled at the man.

"Holy shit you have a tail! What kinda freak are you?" Teedas said laughing.

Edward was busy planning out his attack on this behemoth. One part of him just wanted to go for his good eye and claw it the fuck out of his skull to match the other side. Blind and helpless, Edward could take his time torturing him.

He was then aware that he had a time limit and glanced back towards the camp.

"Well come on runt, let's get you back to base so they can ship your run-away ass back to the orphanage. Or are you headed to the circus?"

Edward bared his teeth and his claws began to dig into the pavement.

"Whoa there!" was all Teedas managed to say.

Edward leaped at the man with his hands splayed out and he grabbed a hold of Teedas's shirt and ripped large gashes through it. Teedas managed to turn to one side so Edward only had a glancing blow at him.

He cursed at the boy and attempted to release the hammer from his belt to use as a weapon but Edward lunged again and slashed the whole belt clean off of his waist. It clattered to the pavement and Edward threw it aside.

 _"You better run."_ Edward growled through clenched teeth. His eyes were blazing as he readied himself for the blood-hunt. Not wanting to waste time running on 2 legs, he grabbed the earth with his hands and savored the feel of vengeance.

Teedas was slow to get moving but once he started, he plowed past fences and purposefully knocked over large debris, hoping to block Edward's bounding approach.

Ed ran and leaped over every obstacle effortlessly as his heart thumped hard against his ribcage. Every time he hit the ground with his hands and feet, he remembered blow for blow the fight he had with this asshole 3 years ago.

A leap over the bike, an upwards thrusting sucker punch in his gut. Around a storm shelter, a kick on his left side. His fingers clawed up the dry earth as he remembered Teedas's soft detached eyeball in his hands. He hissed a laugh as the terrified man ran into a house that was knocked off kilter and began to collapse with him inside. Edward ran around to the front door where the man was sure to escape and blocked his exit as the roof fell all around him.

Several heavy beams hit the bastard, but he was somehow was able to shove the support beams off of himself using up his body's adrenaline stores in the process. Scrambling to get to a spot free from split wood and glass, he tumbled into the side yard and huffed breathlessly up at the sky.

Edward crept closer on all fours and gave a sadistic laugh at the man's injuries. His tail waved back and forth in triumph as he looked down at his prey.

Teedas finally noticed the green slitted eyes, along with the sharp pitch black claws and long furry tail. 'The damned Center and Nina! This demon boy is a chimera just like her!' He figured it out far too late. He picked up a piece of splintered wood and slammed it into Edward's arm, then kicked him square in the head. He was somehow able to get to his feet and run while Ed was incapacitated.

Teedas knew why he was sent there. Why he was ordered to tend the fence by himself out in a ghost town, when he should have had a partner assisting him. This chimera was sent in to kill him and he knew why. Lord help him. He knew why.

Edward's ears rang and he tasted blood. He spat out a tooth and got back to his feet, scanning the horizon for the bastard. He followed his trail over to a dead wooded area. Finding him up against a half crumbled wall.

Edward reached him in seconds and jumped onto his shoulders and was just about to knock him out using the same technique he used on the tranq gun shooter. But Teedas had some basic form of training so he swung his torso over and knocked Edward off of his shoulders and back, he dodged another attack from Ed and punched him hard in the chest and started to run away again.

Flashes of memory of the same rage he felt in the back of the car blinded Ed into hunting him down. He picked up heavy rocks along the way and hurled them at the man. A few careened by his head, as another connected with the small of his back and he stumbled and fell. Edward was on top of him in a second and pinned him down holding onto the man's neck.

"No no! I didn't mean to! Please let me make it up to you, just don't kill me!"

"So you _do know_ who I am!" Edward screamed as he tightened his grip, placing his clawed fingers on key points in the nerves at the base of his prey's neck to immobilize the body. It did not effect his victim's mind, and keeping it alert and fixated on Edward blazing green eyes.

Edward spat the blood and hatred at him, "You beat me up, broke my fucking leg! You kicked me into the door and shattered my ribs! And if that wasn't enough _blood lust_ for you, YOU THREW ME OUT OF A FUCKING. MOVING. CAR!!!"

Teedas whimpered and his eyes started to roll around, half from the asphyxiation, half searching for something he could grab to beat Ed off of him. With horror he knew he couldn't move his arms or legs. Edward was sitting triumphantly on his chest. His nails were now drawing blood from all over his neck.

"Please... I ... I have a family..." Teedas choked.

"And where are they?! Did you abandon them too? Like you abandoned me in the middle of the street to be run over like trash? You lying asshole! You have no family – at least none that you care about. If you did, why are you working for the Center? Huh?! Why did you leave your family?! It was for filthy money wasn't it! Glory? All of that fake bullshit that they promised about saving the country? Using _us chimeras_ as weapons?! ANSWER ME!" He gripped tighter. The man's eyes slowly closed as he moved his lips but no sound escaped.

With a shock of sense Edward let go of the man and stood over him. He could hear the heart beat softly.

Tha thum... .. tha thum...

It was slow, and very weak, but gradually grew in strength. He waited in silent frustration over the man and let his arms hang. He smelled the rich blood and saw the small puddle behind the man's neck.

He held up his hands and saw several brilliant red drips run down the sides of his fingers, and felt the warmth of the blood in the webs and then the coolness of it as it lost its heat on its way down his hands and wrist.

His eyes misted as he listened to the man's labored breathing. Shallow at first, following a gurgled cough and wheeze. The breaths were getting fuller, greater. Teedas's eyes were half closed still, and he hadn't moved at all, but Edward could tell that he had been so close to death that a moment longer and the job would be done.

He glared at the man but an inkling of pity made its way into Edward's mind.

'This asshole tried to kill me. He thought he had. He left me for dead. Why should I do anything less back to him? This bastard.'

The man's mouth moved again but it was only to let some blood drain out. His eye slowly rolled around again and came to a fixed point in front of his face. Still too weak to talk, he tried to tell Edward how sorry he was. His eyes watered and tears fell from one blood shot eye and the other glass eye pointing more or less off center from Ed's own eyes. The glass ball had broken a blood vessel in the cavity and it bled from the corners. One side was clear salty tears and the other side of his face was a couple thin lines of diluted blood trickling down to pool in his ear. Mingling with the sweat that poured off of his face.

They stared at each other for an eternity.

Finally, Edward spoke.

 _"You left me for dead_. _"_

The man sobbed softly and spat out more blood from the side of his mouth.

"But, I wasn't dead." Edward could feel the hot rage tingling all over his body. "... I will do the same." Edward said staring unblinking into his eyes. He leaned over and punched the man in 3 strategic places and left the still body there in the abandoned street.

Edward ran to the center of the ghost town and looked everywhere for the place they had set up as base. Janet would be there. They would shoot her for sure if he didn't produce a body. He searched and hunted and suddenly caught a faintly familiar scent in the stale air of one of the closed houses. He entered cautiously through a gaping hole in the wall. Walking into a large room that was presumably once a warm living room.

"Did you do it?"

He turned around and searched haphazardly for the owner of the soft voice.

"Where are you? Come out here!" He demanded and followed the scent to a hidden place inside one of the half collapsed walls. He moved wall studs and plaster out of the way, following the scent trail to a pair of slit eyes that reflected the light from outside.

"Get out here!" He demanded. "You can't escape from there and I will come in after you!" He growled.

The voice asked sternly now, "Did you do it."

"Why do you care?" He said as he stood guard.

"I... just do... it's wrong."

"What?" Edward was indignant. Then thought about the way in which she said it. She was actually concerned.

Edward sat down in front of the wall and felt hot tears fall from his eyes. He shook uncontrollably and hunched over. Sobbing heavily into his hands. "She's gonna die. They're going to murder her because I didn't kill him." He sobbed harder. "She's going to die, and it's all my fault." He rocked back and forth as he heard a few pieces of broken wood move in front of him. He cried harder now, more then ever before. Everything that Janet, Henry, and Jack had done for him, and he betrayed them all. It was not fair.

"She's going to die." He whispered between sobs.

He felt a warmth radiating in front of his bowed head. He could almost smell the softness and care in front of him. He was too ashamed to look up, but knew that she was standing in front of him. "Just go away." He said quietly. His throat was sore and aching.

"No." She said in her beautiful and stern voice.

"Just leave me here." He insisted.

"No." She said again and put her paws up onto his knees and ducked down to be seen by his downcast eyes. "I'm not leaving you." Nina said and curled up into his lap.

He sobbed harder and hugged her tightly. She nuzzled him with her head and licked the cut on his arm. Nina purred and rubbed to calm him down. He shivered and trembled at this unbridled affection. Their tails waved back and forth then curled up and intertwined as they sat together. He was able to breath a little bit easier now and wiped his face with his long sleeve.

"Are you ok now?" She looked up into his eyes and studied his face.

"Yeah..." He said wiping away his tears over and over again.

"Good, because you have work to do." Nina got off of his lap and walked to the window, jumping up onto the counter to get a better view outside. Edward staggered to his feet and found it difficult to walk, it was as if his legs had no strength in them. He shook and slapped them to wake them up as he realized that even though she was a fair sized cat, she, like him, weighed more then she looked for a feline. She probably was less then 10 lbs heavier then he is now, even though he towered over her at the window sill.

A very loud buzzer went off for a few seconds.

"Shit, that's the 15 minute mark." She said and jumped out of the window and bolted across the yard. Stopping suddenly she yelled back, "Get over here! We don't have time to waste!"

"What?" He said baffled, but obediently followed after her. At first running on two legs but lagged behind terribly. "Screw this" he muttered, then ran after her on all fours, more or less keeping side by side as she led the way around fallen houses, buildings, and dead trees.

"It's over here. She moved it over here." Nina said looking this way and that.

"What's over there? That's not where the one eyed man is."

"We're not going to Teedas." She said panting hard now. He tried to figure out what she was thinking by turning his head to look at her face but stumbled on wooden boards that were hidden in the tall dead grass.

"Shit!" He said as he fell over face first. She passed him by.

"Shut up, I have to track it now." She said then slowed to a trot with her nose in the air.

He got up to his knees and elbows and watched her move from one house to another in a tight area. A light breeze caught his nose and he gagged at the scent it brought him. "Oh my God! What the hell is that?" He covered his nose with both hands and faced the direction the wind had taken.

She ran straight over to Ed and smelled the air intently.

"Over there. Is that the scent you were looking for?" He pointed with one hand but still covered his nose and mouth with the other.

"Yes! Come on, we don't have any time!" She ran to the alley where the rancid smell was coming from. Only their keen sense of smell could detect it, thankfully the other humans could not. The two rounded the corner and saw something lying there, it was long and awkwardly put.

"Over here, now... tear it up." She said as she sat next to it.

"It's a body!" He shouted, stunned.

"Yes, it's a body. Now tear it up! Hurry!"

"Why is there a body here? Who the hell is this?!" He yelled at her.

"I'll tell you later, now we only have a few minutes! If you don't make this guy unrecognizable then they will shoot your mom!"

"But! But!"

"Oh for crying out loud." She huffed then started with the face.

He watched in horror as she scratched up the lifeless cheek that was no longer a healthy peach color. She glanced at his blank eyes, one then the other and tried to remember which one it was. "Which eye was that guy missing?" She asked while standing on the frozen face, purposely blocking the view from Edward.

"Umm. Uhh..." He stammered. Reluctant to speak, he immediately knew what she was doing. "It was the left eye."

"His left or your left?"

"My left!" He yelled as she immediately dove into the socket with both paws and removed the whole ball, throwing it through a gaping hole in the house next to them. She then scratched up the outer areas.

"I'm doing the hard part, now you get to the chest! It's ok, trust me. He won't mind if you do this." She said then shook her head. That sentence was true, but had a different meaning altogether then the way Edward took it.

He knelt down to the chest and saw that the shirt was half untucked.

'This poor bastard was probably murdered while he was still working somewhere. He had a job, a life.' Ed saw the spotted cat's flanks jerk back and forth as she was working away the skin around the neck. Hearing her claw her way to the jugular turned his stomach.

"He's already dead. He's already dead." He kept repeating as he unbuttoned the shirt and saw the skin of the stomach, bruised and faintly marked with some kind of permanent marker.

"What the? Never mind that Ed. Just do it. Don't look... Just do." He said to himself. He turned his head away and felt the cold body under his fingers, he pushed in with the tips of his fingers and his claws extended out, catching the skin.

"Just do this. Just do this..." He grit his teeth and held back both hands. Claws fully out, he grabbed and pulled at the skin in one deft move. He clenched his teeth so hard the gums started to bleed. "He's already dead, it's just meat. _It's Just Meat!_ " He said as he clawed and tore at the insides that spilled out. He could feel the cold slick move across his fingers and hands and was relieved it was not like before with still warm blood that turned cold. He felt his stomach churn again.

"I think I'mmb goonnna..." He said as he got to his hands and feet and left the body there and shuffled around the back of a house. He expelled all the contents of his stomach into a hapless shrub. He spat and cursed. Nina rolled her eyes at him as she stepped off of the remains of the chest and examined the mangled body.

"Sorry." He said wearily after he covered up his sick with dirt and dry grass. Then more dirt and even a couple rocks. The smell from the side of the building still couldn't contend with the new offal scents coming from the corpse.

"I think that's good." She said looking up at him and motioning that he should wipe his mouth again, but stopping him before he wiped his hands off too.

"No, no... you need the evidence. Come on, hide my prints and then follow me this way!" She said then sped off down the street. Only landing on top of things that would not show her tracks, she checked to make sure that Ed's tracks were the only ones visible around the body. The final buzzer went off signaling the last 3 minutes he had left.

"Anything to get away from here." He said finishing up stepping wherever her feet had stood, then raced after her. He felt like throwing up again at the mere thought of what they had just done but there was nothing left to come out, so he choked on nothing and spat out a small amount of blood from his mouth. "Oh that's gross," he said under his breath as he followed after the leaping cat.

Nina stopped just short of a house's fence line and motioned for him to get over to her. "Ok, they are just on the other side of this fence, the time is almost up so you have to shout really really loud that you're done. They will come over here, find you and you need to lead them to the body. You have to look like you killed him yourself. _Do not_ mention me! Or I swear I will kill you myself."

"Where will you be?" He asked as she pushed him.

"No time! Get your ass over there or she dies!"

He nodded at her and ran forward shouting at the top of his hurt lungs, "I'm done! I'm done! Where are you? I'm done!"

At once several men in full black military attire raced around a bend in the street with automatic machine guns and circled around him, the barrels nearly making contact with his head. "Get down! Get down now!" they commanded.

Edward held his hands up at once and got down on his knees. From watching copious amounts of television, he knew that he had to now lay face down onto the ground and put his hands behind his head, so he did so before being prompted. The men looked at each other for just a second then one pointed at a building and then waved the occupants over.

Edward turned to face the building and saw with overwhelming joy that Janet was alive. Then extreme anger bubbled up from within at her captors that were leading her out of the house by a heavy rope that was affixed to her bound wrists, she was gagged and had a thick bandana around her eyes.

She cautiously walked out of the house, feeling her way with the tips of her bare toes as they swung left and right. Tripping up here and there on the debris on the sidewalk then road as she was led out to a spot not 30 feet from where Edward lay. They stood there facing Edward. He growled menacingly at the men holding onto her lead rope.

"Eenwaarr?" She asked hopefully through the gag. One of the men behind her shoved her in the back to keep quiet.

Edward was halfway up from the ground to leap to her rescue but was pinned down by a heavy boot. The steel reinforced spiked grips dug into his back as he winced and cursed into the dirt. Janet could just barely hear him through the fabric around her eyes and covered ears. Her tears were starting to make a wet mark in the bandana and Edward felt his eyes get hot and his body prickle with rage, sorrow, and guilt.

"Shut up." The man warned and ground his heel into Ed's back.

Edward grunted an 'ok' at him and glared through the corner of his eye straight into the man's eyes. The man kept his foot on his back to keep him down and looked away in the direction Edward had just come from. Edward couldn't see but he could clearly hear several other men go down to the alleyway. Making pleased and unnerved grunts and sounds. He could hear them walk around the alley, and back up the street towards him again.

"Good work Fifteen. Very good." They said and the boot lifted from his back. He still laid there in fear it would be replaced with the long barrel of the machine gun.

"Stand up Fifteen." One of the men said behind him. Edward tentatively got to his hands and knees again and stood up. He could see that Janet now had to be restrained by two men as she struggled to run towards him. She knew 'Fifteen' was Edward. She just knew.

"Eennward! Ennwarrr! Ruuunnnn!" She cried and chewed on the gag to get it out of the way of her calls. She lunged forward against the men over and over, blindly trying every direction she could think of. The cover over her eyes was near soaked and it started to fall over her nose. The men brought it back up. Edward and Janet looked at each other for a split second before the bandana was repositioned and tightened as far as the fabric could be drawn together at the back. She winced at the pain and struggled harder, whipping her head back and forth to loosen the blind and gag. She had no hope of getting free from their vice like grip on her arms and they restrained her head from moving any more. The bandana was crooked and awkwardly arranged on her head, she tried desperately to see from underneath it. Continuously whimpering for her son to run away to safety, to save himself.

"As promised, she will be released soon. But not yet." One of the men said as he walked around Edward and stood in-between Ed and Janet.

"Now. To business." He said and rubbed his hands together to keep them warm.

Dusk was coming fast that Friday night and the desert was cooling down quickly.

"Wait! Wait!" A man ran over to the group shouting, "Stop! It's fake! It's a fake!"

"What are you talking about? Of course it's real. You think I don't know a dead body when I see one?" He said indignantly to the young scientist.

"No, I mean it's not him! It's someone else's body down there."

Janet shot her head up and was appalled to hear that Edward was asked to kill someone. Then stood trembling as she realized that he had... just down the street from them.

Edward could tell from her body language that she was confused and frightened. He cursed himself and spun around. "You wanted him dead! I killed him myself!" He shouted at them. In order to save her life he had to lie convincingly. He growled at them, "I murdered that stupid fuck all right! _He deserved it!_ He tried to murder me, it's just and fair revenge!" He shouted and roared louder. Shaking his fists, he felt it easier to pretend the John Doe was the one eyed man and his whole face was seething with anger again. "I wish he was alive right now just so I can kill him again!" He spat more blood towards the ground.

The scientists and men in the suits were talking quietly just out of hearing range for Edward. He continued to shout curses at the dead man in the alley until he saw the suits shake their heads and walk over. They were holding a name tag that was found in the shirt pocket of the corpse. They held it up closer to Edward's nose and frowned at him with disappointment strewn all over their faces.

Edward gaped with horror as he read the name.

"No no no no! I didn't... w _hat?_ " He cried and squirmed as the armed soldiers restrained him and ground the ends of their guns into his bruised stomach and neck. The name tag was dropped to the ground in front of him and Edward read it over and over in disbelief. But there it was. In clear black letters on a beige tag.

'Communications Officer

Dustin Hamilton'

"How? How?! No... NO! _NOOOO!_ " He shouted at the men who had now stepped clear of Janet. She stood there alone on the broken sidewalk, trying desperately to feel something besides the cold air and the gravely ground.

The single gunshot echoed throughout the entire town. Windows shook with the sudden tremor through the air and Edward immediately tasted the smoke from the gunpowder. His mind voided out everything but his mother before him.

Janet felt the hard rocky ground rush up to meet her. The bandana was knocked loose and Edward stared wild eyed, with absolute horror as she stared blankly back at him. Her eyes dilated and she moved no more.

 

Edward fell to his knees and collapsed, laying motionless on the ground. His mind now blank and his body exhausted. There was nothing more to say, think or do. So he shut down entirely.

Nina cried silently and watched the whole thing from a distance and remained hidden away from them, she knew there was nothing she could do to help him now. They picked him up from the ground and dragged Edward to one of the vans and knocked him out with a swift kick to his head.

 

On returning in the pitch black darkness to Site B, they packed everything back up to return to the Center. Albert locked up the 2 houses and the white lab building with deadbolts once everything was out. A few soldiers were then ordered to board up half of the windows and doors. While they were doing that, Albert tossed around the idea of torching the rest of it along with the stables but knew that the enormous smoke cloud would only attract unwanted attention. After all but one of the trucks and vehicles had left with everyone, Albert stood there completely alone, and stared long and hard at the small old house.

"My darling... why did you leave me?" He whispered into the night air, then suddenly hefted a heavy rock in the opposite direction towards the living-room window of the large Victorian house.

"Damn you Albert." He said angrily to the air. "You should have stayed with your beloved wife and got on with your miserable life. For better or worse!" Albert said kicking over the elaborate bird bath held by a stone angel, shattering it on the hard ground. He stared at it and felt like destroying everything else as well. He wiped his face again and again of the hot tears and eventually turned to leave. He got into his huge black car and under the dashboard light, he wrote something down on the back of the receipt from the gas station he and Edward stopped at. Albert then tucked it in the door frame of the Victorian house and got back into his car. He turned up the radio speakers so loud that it hurt his ears and pulled out of the driveway and followed the now distant line of trucks back to the Center.

The paper note crinkled sadly in the wind, 'I hope you find happiness Nina. I will love you no matter what. -Daddy '

 

Back at the Center, the real men responsible for Dustin's death started spreading the rumors that Edward had killed him for no reason at all. They said that Dustin was sent out there before them because they needed his expertise to fix the broken cameras set up all around that deserted town. They had found their escape goat and stood by as the repercussions of their rumors shook the Center.

Edward was thrown into the first cell in the ward, and without working cameras or microphones, everything that happened in there was off the record and therefore 'never happened'.

Dustin's old coworkers and friends eventually found where Ed was being held, and behind closed doors they ganged up on him all at once and beat him mercilessly until he could no longer find the strength to cry.

To hide the bruises and cuts on the boy's body, they then snuck off to the room where the huge electromagnetic wave manipulator was, and forced him to change back into a cat. He could still feel the wounds, but they were no longer visible through his thick fur. Not all of the cuts healed entirely and blood was slowly seeping through. He laid on the cold floor for hours. He was so beaten and dejected that he wished death would find him quickly.

He felt there was nothing left for him to do, but die.

 

'I’m sorry... I’m so sorry...'

 


	24. Un-control Center

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This take a downward spiral at the Center. Ed takes the brunt of it.

Chapter 24 Un-control Center

 

 

 

"Sorry for bringing you all in here so early, being awake at 6:30 on a Saturday morning sucks to say the least. Coffee's on me. So what have we got... let's just put this all on the table. Someone broke in to our Center while we were all at Site B. And since we didn't have to walk through their mangled slaughtered remains before entering the cabin, means that they found a way past our defense system. They also apparently stole the machine gun that I had set up at the back door along with a full box of ammunition for it. So I'm out a couple thousand bucks." Mr. Axom said testily.

Dr. Scott added, "Furthermore, we don't have any operating cameras or surveillance at that time so we have no idea who it was that infiltrated the entire base save for the E-wave room. I'm guessing they couldn't move the 2 ton door with a pry bar. Without those wave machines we'd have nothing."

"I'd say we don't have much even with them. I mean, what use are they when we don't have the funds to run them as we once had. Not only that but the cheaper portable machine was smashed last night by some irate peon I would wager." Dr. Kildare said.

"Well that's that. We haven't enough money even to go on till the end of the year. A wild goose chase in that blasted Amystriss has cost us more then you know Albert. You couldn't just leave that brat alone. From what I understand, he was perfectly fine living amongst those simple townspeople. It was your own scouts that you sent in that triggered his memories. He would have remained inert and under the radar for years. Shit, what do you think you'd achieve anyway?" Axom gave a look at Albert.

"We couldn't let him live out there, sooner or later he would have remembered the Center. Sooner or later he would have come back to destroy us in any way he can."

"As I see it you're half right. However, it is you who ultimately ruined this company by bringing him back here, Mr. Biminy." Mr. Spiegel said provokingly.

"Don't call me that. That is not my name anymore." Albert said testily.

"Albert, this obsession of yours is costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars, we can't afford for it to go on anymore or we will all become destitute. Fifteen is already obsolete technology. Even Sixteen is on her way to becoming useless to us. The money is running dry and it's time to say 'enough'." Dr. Scott said with extra savoir faire as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Who's money are you talking about? As I recall you needed my funds to get you this far. And _how dare you_ talk to me as if I was one of the grunts?!"

"Don't get so dramatic with us Albert. We all invested some money on this. Besides, think of Fifteen like one of those old C phones or 1-pods, there's no reason to spend a lot of money upgrading those old pieces of junk when you can get a new and better one for half the price. Cast your pod to the wind already." Dr. Scott said drumming his fingers on the computer readout for current funds available from the vault.

"We have large enough samples of him, if we wanted to in the future, we could just clone a new one, when we have appropriate funds of course. Fifteen is too old and too 'set in his ways'." Mr. Speigel tossed a wad of paper at his assistant to dispose of.

"Would clones of chimeras have the same traits? We haven't tried that before..."

Albert sneered at the thought of their reckless bio-engineering. Needlessly weakening the genes. He spoke up, "You haven't made any other successful chimeras since my Nina. There is no 17 or 18 because you expected just a little too much from their ridiculously upgraded bodies. You skipped several steps in the process of engineering their DNA, you can't just throw chunks of DNA together and call it finished. The magnititals were not meant to put bandaids on major flaws in the bio-structure."

There was a quite murmur as they tried to figure out who to blame for the failed chimeras, not once taking the blame themselves. Albert continued, "I doubt you'd admit that you went as far as you could with the magnitital technology. Did you even try to find its limits? There's probably even a better way to disperse the waves, a cheaper way your lazy scientists hadn't even thought of yet. Instead of trying to find a more economical method of doing those training sessions, you kept spending my money as if it would never run dry." Albert berated them like spoiled children.

"Your assistance has led us down this road but you are of no more use to us. You signed a contract, for your compensation and to fulfill the deal we made, you get Nina. I am adamant in my decision that 'Edward' is not going to be draining any more money from this company then he already has. I won't even allow the price of a bullet to end his life. We'll dump him off with the garbage and sell what we can of the equipment. If we are lucky we might get close to breaking even." He leaned over to his assistant next to him and directed him to write something down. "Sell all of the legitimate research and supplies, burn the rest. And I guess... sell the living animals. Burn the dead off site of course." Mr. Axom ordered.

"I'll take the live ones, if you're thinking of selling them. Think about it, if anyone gets wind of some of the things we've been doing all these years we will all go to prison, I'm not going to waste my retirement years behind bars. I'll take the animals that are still alive, you can dump Fifteen. That little asshole betrayed and disappointed me for the last time." Albert said, though secretly wanting to keep him. He knew that the Center wouldn't spend the money on yet another brainwashing session on him. Then on considering the matter further, he figured that Edward would inevitably remember anyway. He then may try to kill either himself or Albert in any way he could.

All of the other men at the conference table agreed that it was probably best to just let the damaged goods be thrown away. Albert took a pull from his flask and thumped it back onto the table. Glaring unhappily at the others as the meeting continued. The meeting resembled more like a trial in some dictator's country.

"And what about you betraying one of our own? You had section 4 dissect an officer's brain and put it into that dog’s body? Mind telling us why you took it upon yourself to waste even more of our supplies, time and money on that lost cause?" Dr. Venture asked, leaning forward.

"I, too, would like to know what you hoped to prove. That anyone who makes a mistake in judgment should be punished in that ridiculous way? We do have ways of changing their minds." Dr. Mentock said waving his fingers in the air.

"He betrayed all of us! I can't believe you would have let him go, after what he did?" Albert fumed at the others.

"It is true that he kept Fifteen hidden from us. BUT he is not the one who helped him run away. Fifteen did that all on his own. In my opinion that too was your fault. You were supposed to be watching him on that test run, instead you left it up to those engineers to take Fifteen, _our Fifteen_! A _trained killer_ out there with those two. You didn't even tell them how to handle him properly!" Dr. Kildare said furiously.

Albert quickly retorted, "You were the one's that said he was good to go, or were you lying about that as well. You guys said that they gave him a thorough run through, physically and psychologically. Don't blame me for going through with the test. You should have known what he was capable of before giving the ok on it." He shifted in his chair and sneered at something miserable next to the table. It too had been on trial, and the verdict decided just moments ago. "Besides, he may be a trained killer but he couldn't actually _kill_ anyone. Not even to save his own mother. Sounds like the failure is on you for not conditioning him for the job he was _designed_ to do!" Albert jabbed a finger at the men in the room, hoping they would concede that this mess is partially their fault. He listened to them bicker and complain. "I'm all you can think about? Try solving some problems yourselves for a change! I am not your broom, cleaning up after you."

"All of this is moot now. We're all out of money. We can't present our goods to any discerning and reputable clients, never mind the government agencies, with Fifteen here in such a state. And since Nina has turned up missing, we have less then nothing. No organization in their right mind would fund us now." Dr. Scott said.

"I agree, and it is obvious that there's already dissent, somebody disabled the monitors and smuggled Dustin clean out of here. Perhaps that same person is also responsible for disabling the elevator system right after they had left. It's only blind luck that we had an engineer on hand to fix it down here, otherwise we would have been in real trouble." Another said glancing around the room that could have been their tomb.

"The insurgency doesn't stop there, I even heard rumors in the halls of a strike."

"Ungracious bastards, we took them in and gave them everything they needed over these years. Just watch, they'll be stealing equipment right from under our noses like petty thieves." One said looking at all of the people passing by the doors.

"We should just wipe everyone's memory of this whole business. Just get it over with. Without proof that they worked here, we don't even have to compensate them for their time. Hell, the only ones we'd have to pay are the shrinks that do the job." Dr. Mentok chuckled along with the other suits.

"Not a bad idea, just don't have them show up at my office. I'm packin some firepower in there so don't even think about it." Dr. Scott chortled and noticed Albert still stone faced and pissed off. He shook his head at Albert. "So... Since you have aided us over these years we are not going to throw you to the wolves. However, we are not going to be needing your services anymore, take what you want, there will be a truck waiting for you and your things tomorrow night. As your last duty here, working for us, you are to escort Fifteen to the dump site in the desert. This time you will not leave it up to your underlings. You will do it yourself."

"Just get him out of my sight or he won't even make it to the dump truck." Albert said and kicked Edward's kennel next to the conference table. Edward's body hit against the kennel door, then laid there, without retaliation, no cry of pain or even a witty retort. Nearly motionless, he listened silently to the council discuss his future. He sighed miserably and watched as they filed out of the room. He could hear them as they walked down the hall, talking about selling the Center's underground installation as a bomb shelter for some rich yahoo.

Edward scoffed at the idea that anyone would want such a huge run down and leaking facility. It had gone downhill fast since he left the Center. He barely recognized it by sight but the smells were simply stronger now then before. Musty halls with mold growing in the corners where the plumbing went through the underground tunnels, lab animal waste, and a cacophony of chemicals that only an animal's nose could detect. Who knows what the humans were exposing themselves to by not ventilating the labs properly.

He was at least a little happy at the Center's failure. He felt a kind of peace at the idea that they were disbanding. He was however upset at the idea of Albert taking care of all of the other animals there, even though they weren't as advanced as he was, they were still victims in all this. But... at least they would be alive. He didn't know any of them from his previous time there but knew what they must have gone through. He prayed that they could be as free as he once was. Edward laid quietly in his kennel as the sounds of heavy things were being moved around. The bottom corners of machines screeched as they were being dragged along the concrete which really hurt his ears so he covered them with his paws. The sound reverberated off of every surface until it faded and was replaced with different shufflings and thumps.

"They weren't kidding, they really are moving out of here." He said to himself. There was still a part of him that didn't believe that such a huge and evil place could be brought down by a simple lull in proper funding and lack of trustworthy leadership. He almost laughed aloud.

He licked his wounds and tried to keep the bruised areas on the cool metal. Next best thing to an ice pack was the chill of metal in the subterranean rooms. Occasionally he'd move to a different section, to a new cool spot. Even moving was painful for him, so he tried to stay still while he healed. A large part of him said 'why bother' but he couldn't refuse his instincts to heal himself. Not while he was still alive. There was a different part of him, a very small part that grew with further consideration, that hoped Albert would change his mind and at least keep him as a pet after all. He almost welcomed the brainwashing it would require, if only to forget about his mother’s death.

He laid in silence.

Sounds of everything being moved to the upper levels and finally outside carried on long into the day. Many had taken some hours rest here and there so the job would be done before Sunday. He knew this, because orders were given again and again to hurry up. At around 10 am, he became aware that there were fewer and fewer employees, which suspiciously coincided with more confused tourists being led to the surface. He grinned, suddenly they had become very lost in the halls they used to walk down for years. He would sometimes say, "Hey" which scared the ‘tourists’ half to death.

"And that is one of our new animatronics that might also be on display at the new sci fi theme park. Looks lifelike doesn't it!" The 'tour guide' said as mouthed death threats to Edward when the rest weren't looking.

Edward shouted random obscenities and insults at them until his throat hurt. Grinning maliciously at the now outraged tourists. He heard the tour guide talk about how the fake cat's behavioral chip was malfunctioning and that's why it was locked up.

'That's the best you could come up with? Dumb fuck doesn't even know that he'll join them soon enough, and if he were smart he should run away as fast as he can.' Edward thought as he laid down again.

'Wonder who will be left with their brain intact. Not very many I see...' He suddenly thought of Janet falling down to the gravel, and staring at him with those blank eyes. He cursed himself and tried to think of something else but the scene kept playing out in his head over and over until he thought he'd go mad. Hours passed with nothing but the sounds of his own breathing and the banging of metal on metal in distant rooms. A constant reminder of what the shot sounded like that ended her life. Each one was like a nail in his heart. But it kept beating. And with each breath he took, he thought of her and died a little. Another hour went by. His heart ached and his head throbbed with grief.

'Stop remembering, stop thinking of... stop it. stop it. Stop IT...' He bit his wrist until it hurt even more so, and rammed his head up against the kennel wall until it reopened one of the wounds. 'Stop. Stop. _Please stop_. Just STOP.' He blinked away the trickle of blood that seeped into the fur around his eyes. But still those sorrowful eyes relentlessly stared at him from across the gravel and blowing sand.

" _stop_ " he whispered, pleading.

A long time had passed before two men came into the conference room. Together they hoisted the kennel up and took it to the elevator. Edward thought he could attack through the bars and catch them off guard. He wanted the falling kennel to somehow break open on the concrete floor so he could get free. But, he soon gave up on the hopeless escape plan. There was no point anymore, no point in trying to get loose. He had been responsible for his mother’s death. He couldn't ever go home again. Couldn't face his family, couldn't face the world. He had lost all hope and the will to go on.

The kennel was knocked around excessively for no other reason then to hurt him further, the two men relished in his stifled cries of pain. Each thud his body made against the walls gave them new waves of sick laughter.

Albert rounded the corner with a placid look on his face. He told them to put the kennel into the elevator and to follow him to the dump site. They reached the cabin topside as the Saturday afternoon sun warmed up everything except for his spirits. Albert escorted them to a huge green refrigerated truck that was nearly full of perishable junk from the lower levels. The kennel was then swung back and forth and finally thrown to the top of the garbage heap as the doors slammed shut.

The last thing Edward saw before they closed, was of Albert winking at him.

 


	25. Site B a Circus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dustin, Jack and Henry show up at Site B and they are not alone.

Chapter 25 Site B a circus

 

 

 

"Is this the one?"

The dog nodded as Henry pulled into a long driveway and let the truck idle while the others got out of the truck and opened up the doors to a huge 2 story garage. The upper loft area appeared to be filled with old electronics and metal sculptures.

Henry pulled the truck and attached camper into the garage and Jack marveled at the size of it. They didn't even have to unhitch the camper or move anything out of the way first. A huge digital clock was on the wall and glowed 'Friday 9:12 PM' at them, partially illuminating the way. It was hooked up to other machines around the garage and resembled the same setup from the movie 'Back to the Future'. Jack laughed to himself and looked around for the Alpo dispenser for the dog.

"You live here? Mr. Rube Goldberg?" Henry plunked at a ball bearing dispenser hung down from a loft filled with furniture and more machines.

"Noott herre, thhee houuse." Dustin led them over to a 2 story building that had once been a store front shop with an apartment above. He knocked over a stone rabbit ornament next to the front entryway and pointed at the spare house key.

"Ii forrgot mmy keeys inn myy otther boddy's pannts." Dustin chuckled.

Jack shook his head at the morbid joke and unlocked the front door. Henry pushed the button to close the garage doors after making sure they weren't followed. Once inside, Jack went over to the adjoining door to the garage and let his dad in.

"So, where are the keys to your jeep you were telling us about?"

Dustin led them upstairs to the apartment house to root around the place looking for the spare set of car keys. Henry frowned at a huge mess that greeted them, "Oh crap, the Center guys beat us here, they ransacked the place looking for something, sorry Dusty. Why would they trash your house?"

Dustin just had a puzzled look on his face, and looked around his house. Seeing it for the first time in black and white was distracting and different, but that's where the deviations ended. He laughed and said, "Iit allwayys lookks likke thiiss."

Jack and Henry chuckled and went to the kitchen and dining room and sifted through the debris. "Man you and Edward are the same, and not just the whole 'he's your clone' same. I mean his room is also a pig sty." Jack said putting a stack of dirty dishes in the sink to clear the table a bit.

"You're one to talk, Jack." Henry said as he checked the counter top and finally found a large ring of keys that looked promising.

"Were you a janitor too?" Jack said flipping through key after key, looking for the ones to the jeep.

"Nno, Ii jusst havve allot of lloocks." He said as he then carefully bit the one to his old jeep.

"I'll say. What are they all for?"

Dustin led Jack back downstairs and showed him all of the large pad locked cases in the converted store. "Ellectronnics. Eexpensivve aas helll. Ii buillt aaa feww off thhemm." Dustin beamed with pride at the plethora of machines that would make members of the CIA blush with envy.

"What do they all do?"

Dustin thought about how to explain it to a regular kid and shrugged. "Differrent sttuff. Ii diddn't maake alll off themm." He said nodding in the direction of some very imposing looking machines with the name 'Tubris' on them. Jack could tell it would be more then an afternoon to explain what those were for, and where he had gotten them. Dustin shrugged and yawned, Jack yawned too and they stumbled back up the stairs to the apartment.

They all found a place to crash for a few hours because they had been busy all day again, and were too tired to go on for much longer. Before he conked out for the night, Dustin reassured them that the Center doesn't conduct business this late and they would have to rest too. Henry was almost asleep at the wheel a few times, as well as Jack, who drove for awhile. Dustin couldn't drive so it was his job to wake them up before they crashed on the road. They were simply too exhausted and slept before they could protest the thought.

Since Dustin had lived fairly close to the Center, they had decided it would be best to swap out the vehicles. The truck and camper were sucking down gas at an amazing rate and besides that, if there had been any working cameras or any person around the Center when they infiltrated it, they might be able to identify the truck and camper and could have sent someone out looking for the intruders.

Dustin and Jack woke when they heard Henry start up the jeep. He then called them out to get going again. "Hit the _Dusty_ road, _Jack_." He punned, badly. Jack rolled his eyes and failed completely to get the song out of his head.

"Whatcha got there Dusty?" Jack said rubbing his eyes and rousing his legs.

Dustin brought over and dropped a small flat black machine into Jack's hands. Jack turned it over and then found the on button. A screen lit up and he realized it was a GPS locator. Jack and Dustin settled in the backseat of the jeep to speak so Dustin didn't have to strain himself to be heard.

Since Dustin couldn't read very well, it was up to Jack to figure out how to work the machine and find the most recent signals it had received from the Center. Dustin told them that every time the Center relocates they used these specialized locators to get everyone to the right spot without having to drive down the same roads at the same time. Since Dustin was the one that helped design the program, he had the prototype stored at his house.

"So if this tells us where they are, why didn't you lead us to your house in the first place?"

"Ii thhougght theyy werre stiilll therre att thhe Ceenterr."

"Fair enough. So what button do I push to get this to turn to the next page?" Jack said holding the small screen up to the dog’s face.

Dustin looked at the screen and squinted. He tried to concentrate on it and then sighed, frustratedly. He then gave a look to Henry in the driver's seat ahead of them. Henry nodded knowingly, and said as a joke, "All those who've had a lobotomy in the past couple days, raise your hand."

Dustin smiled and raised his hind leg straight up, he then stuck his long tongue out the side of his mouth and drooled on himself. "blaaahhggg?"

Jack ruffled the fur on Dustin's head and sat back in his seat and resigned to figure it out on his own. Henry rolled down the windows to let some cool air through the jeep. The desert air was dry and cool as they drove down long 2 lane roads. Dustin stuck his head out of the window and Dan popped back in control to enjoy the wind flapping the large floppy ears.

"I guess Dan's back." Henry said as he had to roll the window up a little bit so the dog wouldn't be tempted to jump out of the moving car. "Just as well, there's nothing around here for miles from what I can see." Henry said looking at the vast dark barren landscape ahead of them, now that they had left the light of the small city where Dustin lived.

"I think I've got it... what's today's date?" Jack asked.

"Saturday May 22nd... 2:56 am." Henry said checking the jeep’s dashboard.

"Ok, yesterday... I mean the day before yesterday, the 20th. They sent out an address on Tucky road at about 2:30 am." Jack checked the GPS and got out their map of Utah. Following the path they needed to take, he told his dad the directions.

"I think that's where they are now. We can make it in under 4 hours. Oh. Looks like we'll be close to the middle of the state." Jack said folding up the map to have the area they are heading to on the front part. Circling the whole street with a black drafting pen that was found in the jeep. He liked using the paper map over the GPS because he didn't know how long the battery would last on the little machine.

"Hey Dusty? Are you still there?" Jack said patting the dog’s back.

The dog pulled his head back in and gazed at Jack inquisitively.

"Dustin?"

"Yeaahh?"

"Oh good, I was hoping that you could talk. Is that place we are heading to somewhere you are familiar with?"

He thought about it and tried to remember the last time he was there. "Yeahh, theeyy caalll iit Sitte Bbe." He said and stuck his head back out of the window as Dan resumed his play time.

Jack patted his back and was glad that the two of them were able to flip flop control effortlessly now. They had reached a balance that might have been impossible were it not for each beings' innate willingness to serve and be helpful. Jack was also kind of glad that he didn't have to clean up after their bouts for control. Dustin was a good leader for Dan, keeping him close to the others and focused on the bigger tasks at hand.

Once they got onto the right roads, Jack handed Henry the GPS locator and the paper map and went back to sleep in the rear bench leaning up against the dog who also fell asleep. After an hour, they came across a gas station and filled it up and grabbed some very early breakfast for everyone. Jack took over driving and Henry slept in the passenger seat. It was still a black starry night outside and the sounds of the road beneath the tires was like an odd lullaby. Hours flew by with nothing to see till the east glowed a deep red. They switched drivers again after stopping for a potty break at the largest cacti close to the road.

Henry turned off the headlights as dawn was now bright and sunny. "What in the heck is all this now?" He said to himself as the others continued to doze.

Ahead of them, about 2 miles down this stretch of road, he could see a patch of activity happening around some indistinct buildings. His heart started to beat faster, but he didn't want to get too nervous about the possibilities that now faced them.

"My eyes ain’t what they used to be. Better wake up the kid."

Henry rolled up the map and smacked Jack on the head with it.

Jack wiped the drool from his mouth with a sleeve and used a rag to wipe off the dog's drool from his clothes. The dog was bumped and woke startled and hacked loudly in Jack's ear. "Dan... dang-it, quiet down." Jack muttered.

"Ohh, soorryy..." Dustin said sheepishly, licking his lips of the slobber, "Iitt wass Dann..." he said looking at the large congealed puddle of dog spit. He hastily looked out the side windows to change the subject.

"Oh sure Dusty, blame the dog. Anyways, where are we? Are we getting close?"

"I think so, here... get up front and tell me what you see down the road a ways once we get to the top of this hill."

The jeep sped to the crest and the three of them squinted at the distance.

"Are those people the Center's guys? I didn't think they'd be so, I dunno, disorganized."

Dustin snorted at the windshield in agreement. He knew they wouldn't be parked all along the road for everyone to see. But couldn't figure out who else would be there. They saw several news vans parked alongside the next hill closer, apparently getting artsy photo shots of the surrounding fields and of their own helicopters overhead. Shameless self advertising.

"What the hell? They found them before we did? What's happened?" Jack said as they passed a few cop cars and even a couple of fire trucks as they finally reached the electric fenced boarder of the vast property that hugged the road. A cop started to walk over to the jeep and Henry kept on going down the road, ignoring the waving officer.

"I don't think he liked that, Dad."

"We need to get closer, they can't arrest us for anything yet. There's the official police line over there."

"How do we get past all those people? What the hell is going on here anyway?"

The three of them saw all manner of trucks and vehicles parked everywhere. Half of them were local and national news vans, and the other half ranged wildly from NASA, ambulances, Biminy Laboratories, PETA, INS, NRA, Child Welfare, various Aeronautics Institutions, and dotting the spare spaces outside of them were parked unmarked vehicles with collapsible telescopes and enormous satellite dishes attached to them, all pointing at the same spot in the sky. The one vehicle with the most people around it however, was the ice cream truck that was making a killing on all the hungry, hot investigators.

"Are they looking at the moon?" Jack asked as he stuck his head out the window to see the very faint white moon still hanging in the sky from the night before. "Why are they looking at the moon?"

"Better question is, why is everyone here? If the Center was here I'm sure they'd have had some kind of shoot-out before they had time to raise a camera to their eye. You saw the sheer amount of munitions they had at that underground facility. No way would they go down without a fight."

"What do we do?" Jack asked as some reporters and cops were now taking interest in the newest vehicle to arrive at the circus that was formally known as 'Site B'.

"We can't tell them anything or ask them for help ‘cause if they find Edward first then he would never see the light of day again. They'd lock him away or dissect him or worse!" Jack was starting to panic. "What are we going to do?"

Before Henry could come up with a plan, Dustin opened the back door and took off running for the Victorian house.

"I guess he's going to find out." Henry said to Jack as he reached back and shut the door and rolled up all the windows to avoid the press.

Dustin glanced back briefly to the jeep as reporters descended on it like flies to sugar. 'They'll be fine.' Dustin thought as he made his way over to the house and cautiously sniffed around, unnoticed by the people that were entering and exiting the house with little more then junk food wrappers and bits of garbage. Dustin knew the Center wouldn't leave anything interesting laying around and feared that they were able to leave before the police showed up. He slipped in through the front door, following an officer, pretending to be a drug dog. He dutifully sniffed around the place. The rouse worked perfectly as he learned to wait for one officer or another to go into the rooms he wanted to check out. He caught familiar scents everywhere but couldn't be sure if any of them were Edward's. He wasn't sure what Ed actually smelled like and asked Dan to take over that job.

Dan was eager to find Ed and went up to the 2nd level, leaping 3 steps at a time and found the room and bed that Edward had slept in. Dan snuffed around the room and was very agitated at not finding Edward still in the bed.

'Hey Dan... what's that?' Dustin asked the dog and forced the head to look at something that was resting just inside the doorway.

Dan sniffed at it and basically told Dustin that it was his master's thing, and smelled a different cat's scent on it as well.

Dustin looked intently at it and finally recognized what it was, a photo from an instant developing camera. He pawed at it until he could see the front side and looked closely at it. The picture was of Henry, Jack and Ed in costumes. Jack was holding 2 plastic jack-o-lanterns full of candy with Edward as a cat grinning at the camera in a red outfit with 'thing one' written on the front in a white circle. Jack was 'thing two'. Henry was behind them, holding up Edward to stand on his hind legs so Janet could show off the costume in the picture.

Dan was able to focus on the photo too and recognized his dearest friend in it. Dan whined and picked it up in his mouth, intending on retrieving it to his other masters waiting in the jeep.

'Dan. Dan wait. We have to check out the other buildings too. Then we can go.' He paced around the hallway, trying to figure out where Ed went to next, and was spotted by two officers climbing the stairs ahead of him. One pointed to the photograph in the dog's mouth and patted his legs to get the dog to come.

'Crap!' Dustin thought and backed into Ed's room again. Jumping up on the bed the dog growled quietly at the cops without dropping the photo.

'No Dan don't growl, just umm... play with them!' He said as Dan bolted in-between the two cops that tried to corner the dog in the room.

"Stop that dog!" They shouted too late. Dustin was able to push the front door open and maneuvered past a couple of PETA activists and NASA guys on his way over to the white building.

Very strong ominous odors emanated from the white building and Dan didn't want to go in there at all. Dustin took control and made them go straight for the area where the drug dogs and cadaver dogs were kept. He smelled death all over the cadaver dogs and had a pang of fear as he thought of the need to bring them in. But somehow he was able to remain calm enough to be passed over by the pursuing cops.

'Always hide in plain sight pooch.' He said to Dan, but Dan was more interested in smelling the rear ends of every dog there more then staying inconspicuous.

'Stupid dog.' Dustin thought only to himself.

He waited until the cop apparently lost interest and was needed to control the crowds that were becoming increasingly impatient. The dog was able to slip out of the pack again and inspect the grounds, all while trying to piece together everyone's role.

'Ok, so there's PETA over there. They probably found evidence of animal fighting and no doubt saw the fight circle that we just ran through. NRA is here because they probably found some wild ass gun that we designed and some idiot left in the closet or something and they don't know what it is. Child welfare is here because of the small footprints in the fighting ring. I wonder if they noticed there's only 4 toes...' Dustin thought as he now sniffed at the prints in the sand with 4 toes and faint claw marks on the tips of each toe.

Dan confirmed that they smelled like Edward and Dustin put the scent to memory. 'Ok, so he was here. Fighting.' Dustin thought sadly then was ushered off of the area by some guys taking photographs of the prints and measuring them.

"That damn dog screwed up the area. There was definitely some sick shit going on here. Single set of barefooted kids prints against at least a dozen other men's shoe prints. Clear fighting stances on both sides. Then over there the same child's prints are found next to some kind of animal prints. There are drops of blood everywhere over there. Make sure forensics gets samples of all of them once we are done here." The photographer said to his assistant.

"We should take some pictures of that dog's prints so we don't get it mixed up later in post." They continued to work on the circle and surrounding roped off areas.

'Help me out here Danny boy. Where did Ed go.'

They went around the white building and entered from the back door that was propped open to let a breeze through. The electricity and therefore the air conditioning was shut off so the air was becoming increasingly hot as the Saturday morning gave way to noon. Despite the building being white and half buried in the ground, it heated up quickly. The dog panted as he searched and found trace evidence of Edward in nearly every room. A few drops of blood on the counter and underside of a table in a smear which was probably left from someone's rubber gloves.

'His blood scent is everywhere, what the heck did they do? Operate?' Dustin wondered as he went around all of the other rooms in the white building and even unwittingly led investigators over to the spots that he took interest in. They had assumed the dog was trained for that work and naturally followed along.

'I wish people would stop following us. Can't get anything done with them always gettin in the way.' He thought to himself as they kept moving him aside to investigate everything he looked at.

He had an idea and led them over to a door he couldn't open before and they did it for him. He rushed inside ahead of them and quickly scoped out the room first. Dan piped up here and there to direct Dustin's attention to a few things that they had taken from his house. He also smelled Edward all over those items and figured that they had tested him to see if he remembered the objects from before. Dustin figured that they had brainwashed him while he was there, but wasn't sure if it was before or after the operations. There were freshly cleaned saws and knives left to dry next to the sink and a tray of surgical tools still sitting on a rolling cart in the corner. A half emptied container of chloroform was sitting next to the container that the Center used for their own mix of chemicals to knock out their animals. Usually only a cup of chloroform is used in the special mix, so the half emptied gallon worried Dustin the most.

'Oh God... did they dissect him?? Why is there this strong smell of bone mixed in with his blood?' He went over to a large holding tank with liquid nitrogen and tried to smell the insides of it without freezing the dog's nose off.

"Back up buddy. That will hurt you." A technician said as he pulled the dog's collar away from the tank. He then grabbed a pair of long tongs and sifted around the fog topped tank and felt something at the bottom.

"Hey, Dr. Spengler. Can you come over here and give me a hand?"

"Sure, what do you have here?"

"There's something down there and it feels like a cylinder, I can't get a good grip on it." Together they pulled out a long clear jar with a severed hand inside.

"What the..." Dr. Spengler said as he turned it around and around. "I don't think... I've never seen anything like this before."

"What do you mean? It looks pretty nor..." He stopped as the doctor put his own left hand next to the jar and pointed at the finger tips.

"Are those... animal claws? Did they implant them?"

Dustin backed up from the two and gaped at the sight of the floating hand in the jar. His son's hand. "Nnooo... nnoo iitt cann't bbee..."

The two men turned around but couldn't find the person who said that. Before they could stop him, Dustin ran out of the room and searched the rest of the site wildly, looking for any trace of his son in the sand. He then went to the old small house but couldn't get inside. All of the windows were sealed shut and the door was still bolted because the others hadn't investigated it yet. He grit his teeth and took a running leap towards the house and broke through the plate glass window into the living room. He tumbled on the unfamiliar furniture and skidded on the floor for only a moment.

The reporters tried to use the loud distraction to force their way into the site but every officer on hand was quickly there to keep them back. With all the commotion going on outside, some people were shouting about an attack from inside the house and dove for cover behind vans and gear.

All of it gave Dustin just enough time to search the place for anyone left still alive, or any evidence that might show them where they went after they left Site B. All he could find was a new shopping bag left under a bed in the side room with about 10 boxes of rifle, pistol and automatic and semi-automatic shell cartridges with various calibers of all types. Half of the shells were missing from each box and a separate bag laid beside it with similar bullets all mixed together. He had a very hard time reading the words on the boxes, but knew what they were from the shapes.

'But that doesn't make any sense... why would all _these_ be here? What the hell is going on!?' Dustin growled and searched the other small rooms in the house. He picked up the trace of some feline that had apparently went through the whole house and figured it must have been Nina and not Edward because it was unfamiliar to him. He hadn't seen or smelled Nina in his canine form and Dan had never met her. But the dog knew what a cat smelled like for sure. 'She brought Ed that photograph... but he didn't take it with him. What does that mean? Maybe she did not give it to him but forgot it there. I don't know. Crap, what happened to the photo? I must have dropped it somewhere. I gotta find it.'

He had just enough time to awkwardly jump back out of the living room window before the PETA people descended on the little house trying to rescue the dog. He dodged them easily enough and found the photo again when he came close to the cadaver dogs. Thankfully no one spotted it, so he quickly snatched it up in his mouth and ran around the perimeter of the site trying to pick up traces of Edward anywhere. He feared that he would find a shallow grave just outside of the site but had to leave because more and more people were joining in the chase after him. 'Ok Dan, we gotta leave now...' He said and let the dog find the jeep where Henry and Jack were.

"Get in!" Jack said hurriedly and shut the door tight after him as Henry peeled out of the ditch and made their way back down the road they had come from. Henry called out of the window as he passed the few people that had seen what happened, "Sorry my dog got loose! Won't happen again!"

It was lucky for them that everyone else that was chasing the dog had mistaken one of the drug dogs for Dustin and pinned the confused canine to the ground. From the back window Jack and Dustin watched as the commotion continued in the now distant horizon.

"No one is following us, Dad." Jack said after a few minutes and settled back down into the seat, holding a half eaten Popsicle. "Oh, where did you get this?" he took the photo from the dog's slobbering mouth. "Hey Dad, this is from our Halloween a couple years back." he said, wiping off the drool and then putting a finger to Ed's image. "I don't know why they had this, but thank you Dustin for bringing it back. My mom made all of our costumes. He was so young, and looks so happy... wish Mom was in the pic too." he said quietly and offered the panting dog a bite of a Popsicle they got for him.

"Well Dusty... we think we know why some of those guys were there, but those NASA guys kept asking us if we lived around here and saw any strange clouds in the night sky." Jack said licking the trickle of sugary blue syrup running down his arm.

"They asked us if we knew about the lunar tornadoes and some other crap and we said no, of course not. Who thinks there's tornadoes on the moon?" Henry said as he drove down the first of several hills.

The ash that had once comprised a barn and the Johnson's belongings was now marked as the spot where aliens had landed from the moon by conspiracy nuts. Geiger counters and metal detectors were currently scanning the whole area. Hundreds of telescopes around the country had triangulated that exact site to be where the upside down tornado stretched to from the lunar surface. The different teams from NASA had out their samples of actual moon dust and were comparing them to the ash and had been debating if any of it actually came from the celestial surface. Some said it was simply too much material there and another said that it burned up in the atmosphere so that's why it's now ash. They had found splinters of wood here and there around the burnt area and a new theory was comprised of a machine in a building that drew in all of the matter to Earth. Subsequently it too had burnt to the ground when the miniature flaming meteorites crashed into it.

"Turn on the radio Dad, to some local station. Maybe they're talking about it right now."

Henry fumbled with the unfamiliar dials and found an AM station with some bit of live coverage of the fiasco. They listened to the reports from Site B of illegal animal fights with wild puma’s and how the Victorian house was filled with about a hundred immigrants who slept in any spot available. Others presumed they were homeless gypsies and talked about how it was such a problem in that area. Warning people to look out for signs of Voodoo.

Jack and Henry just looked at each other and let out a laugh. Henry flipped over to one station after another and found that most of them were talking about the same place they had just left, but in different contexts. Greatly varying reports about a secret government lab that conducted tests with gamma rays to make the stars fall out of the sky. Another was similar and insisted that they were trying to make the moon crash into the Earth with a gravity bomb. Still others insisted that the lunar tornadoes had nothing to do with the abandoned buildings and it was all just a coincidence.

They flipped over to another station that was taking calls to find out who 'Nina' was and if someone had found any missing persons. They then read off a note that they had recovered that was pinned to the door of the Victorian house: 'I hope you find happiness Nina. I will love you no matter what. -Daddy '

"Where did Nina go? She ran away from the Center?" Jack asked.

"Apparently so, I don't think Albert's the kind of person to leave a note like that for no good reason. Hey Dustin, do you think it might be some kind of trap? Or maybe to throw someone off their trail?"

Dustin laid quietly and didn't say a word. He had other things on his mind.

The radio continued to blurb about the note written on the back of a receipt from a gas station, and that the station was already swarming with people claiming to be Nina. Others arrived and claimed ownership of the whole site and wanted any valuables inside returned to them. Some were arrested and questioned but of course it proved fruitless.

The radio station then went on to other news about how an international pharmaceutical company had received an unmarked package the night before, which consisted of a perfectly preserved hand and a long tail from an unidentified animal. The geneticists were having a hey day over the documents and research that was crumpled up and packed into the box to keep the glass jars and test tubes from breaking. No return address was labeled, but the managers of Biminy drugs wanted to send out a huge thank you and reward to whomever sent them the ground breaking research.

"Bbimminnyy? Diid hee juust sayy Bbiminyy?" Dustin cocked his head.

"Yeah, Biminy. Do you know that company?"

"Thhatt's Allberrt’s laast namme... iit's hiiss olld commpanny, Ii thiink... ohh noo..."

"Now we can't be certain that the hand is... we just don't know. Don't jump to any conclusions. Either of you." Henry said firmly gripping the wheel.

Dustin was distressed and wouldn't say why. He just kept shaking his head and looking out the window.

"But what if..." Jack said and was stopped by Henry saying, "We don't know, Jack."

"Shouldn't we check it out at least?"

"No. They won't let us in anyway and it's almost a full day's drive away. All they have is a hand and some animals' tail. They never said they had... anyone." Henry stared into the distance, "He wasn't the only experiment there. It's probably one of the others that didn't make it. We don't even know for sure that the box is from the Center. Could be from anyone."

Jack considered that and said hopefully, "Even if it was his, he's able to re-grow it back, right?"

Dustin asked him to explain, so Jack and Henry told him about how they had tried to cut off Edward's tail years ago but it grew back the next few times he changed shape. In addition to that, they told him how the tip was shot off last Tuesday in the Amystriss river and still re-grew to its original shape.

Dustin was amazed and wondered if it was just his tail that could grow back or if other parts could too, like his hands. They spoke briefly of some animals that can shed their tails when they are trapped by a predator but only some lizards and starfish can fully re-grow some appendages. Not mammals. So they all hoped that it was not someone from the Center that gave them the package.

The newscasters on the air continued to talk about the sheer volume of data and samples of cell growth in small test tubes. A different reporter was buzzed in and said that a different division of the same pharmaceutical company had just received a separate package containing a laptop. It was dropped off on a cigarette stand close to the parking lot only an hour ago. Each folder held years and some had decades worth of data on regenerating dead tissue on a living being. In a folder labeled 'instructions' they were now finding detailed steps on how to take a sample from the severed tail and re-grow the cut sample with electro-magnetic waves and a slurry consisting mainly of electrolytes and mercury.

Henry turned the radio off and punched the dashboard.

They drove in silence for a very long time. The wind howled angrily and despairingly outside in a way that matched the sounds their hearts and minds were making. The jeep rumbled on down the road as they calmed down a bit. Shutting out the crushing feeling of loss and opting instead for one of denial. They couldn't simply give up the fight for their loved one's lives. The three of them refused to stop looking just because there was a possibility of failure. If there was still a chance that Edward and Janet were alive then they would search forever for them. Still, they couldn't drive with no destination, so Henry started to head back to Dustin's house, hoping that by some fluke they find someone related to the Center on the way, to follow back to their new location.

"I just realized what day it is today..." Jack said, fiddling with the broken watch on his wrist.

Henry glanced over and recognized it as his old watch that had broken down years ago. He frowned and stared ahead down the road. "I know."

Dustin sat up and cocked his head to the two, hoping for an explanation.

"Yesterday was Ed's birthday. At least, the day he came to live with us, we called it his birthday. It's already been 3 years... and he's grown so much in that time. But of course, you already know when his real birthday is. Don't you."

Dustin nodded and then had an odd thought. "Hee aactually hass fourr, iff youu wannt too bee sppecifiic." Dustin explained, "Welll hee's aa cllone riight? Minne aand thee Mainnecoon's. Thaat's twoo. Hiis biirth-daate whiich iss Appril eeigth two thousannd an fiive, and his _reall_ biirthdayy withh youu guuys."

Henry just stared ahead but Jack found it somewhat amusing. He planned on getting Ed to celebrate all 4 birthdays every year just until he has had enough birthday parties to catch up to his perceived age of 14.

"So he's 5 years old then. I'll have to remember to tell him. It was bothering him when we were going to the construction site that he didn't know." Jack said quietly. He turned the radio back on and kept the volume very low, checking other am stations, searching for any news about a recently abducted woman in her forties. "Dustin... do you have a police band scanner back at your place?"

The dog lifted his head from the arm rest and thought about it for awhile. Then put it back down and said that he couldn't remember.

"Can we, I dunno, go to the store and buy one? Where do they sell those kinds of things?"

"They're illegal in most states, and I'm not familiar at all with what stores they have down here." Henry said moodily because he knew why Jack wanted one.

"Well, we've got to try -"

"Dusty, any ideas? Where would they take his body to bury him." Henry said flatly, hiding the stray tears running down his cheek.

A flash of a memory hit Dustin. He jerked his head up and faced the two in the front seat. He asked for Jack to sit next to him in the backseat and help him draw something very important. Henry slowed down and pulled off to the side of the road so Jack didn't have to climb over the seats. He found a folded up schematic for some machine Dustin had probably worked on, and flipped it over to the clean back side of it. He then found a marker and held the two in front of the dog’s face.

Dustin shut his eyes and asked Dan to be very quiet. Nodding, he then tried very hard to bring back that memory of his truck ride with Ellen days before.

Her peppermint scent was the predominating memory, and instead of blocking it out, he had to let it warm up the rest of the event, hoping it would jog something else. The seats of the truck were well worn and he remembered his human body in the hold of the refrigerated truck. It was still dark outside, and he saw a small white sheet of printed stationary with a name on it and some lines drawn out in pencil.

He told Jack to start drawing a straight line right down the center of the page, top to bottom. Then pointed at a spot left of the line and said to draw an intersecting line that curved upward slightly at the end. Jack did as he was instructed.

After 10 minutes of slow and painstaking measurements, drawing numerous lines, erasing some mistakes and amending others, he told Jack to write a 'Z' on the beginning part of the curved line and a 'W' at a ninety degree angle above the 'Z' and intersecting lines. Dustin then shut his eyes tightly and double checked the memory before opening them and nodding in approval at the recreation.

"So... what is it?" Jack asked.

"Tuurrn thhe toop siide too thhe riighht annd yoou'll ssee." Dustin smiled.

"Is that ‘Z’ really an ‘N’ for north?!"

"Yeaahh! Iit'ss thhe maap theyy dreww foor Elllenn. Iii doont knoow whherre itt goesss buut thhat onnly meaans thaat iit'ss thheiir seecrett pllacee."

"Why did they draw the map for your friend?"

"Shhe waas suppossed too dummp myy boddy therre." Dustin said frankly.

Henry and Jack had an unpleasant expression at that straight answer and decided not to dwell on it. They didn't want to hear any more about dumping bodies even though it was the theory for finding Edward. Henry changed the subject. "So where are we now on the map?"

Dustin stared at it and shrugged. He then shook his head at his own stupidity and with Jack's help he drew an 'X' on the spot where the secret place was. Then he explained that it was meant to be read by someone leaving the Center, not from Site B.

So Henry pulled out his larger state map and marked where Site B and the Center was, lined up the 2 maps and found the spot where it must lead to, somewhere in the vast stretches of absolute barren desert.

"Will we even know where this 'X' is? I don't see any town or intersection nearby." Henry said leaning over to see the hand-drawn map.

"I think we should just keep driving on down there until we see something off to the right side of the road. We will just stop at anything that's not sand and cactus. Something man-made."

"Sounds like a plan. Buckle up, we have a long way to go and no time to waste."

Jack nodded and Henry set the map onto the dashboard so he could read both with ease while he drove.

Finally, after half a week of chasing and traveling, they had a definitive destination where they would find them. They put aside the thoughts of what they might find when they get to that secret place, and opted instead for thoughts of hope. The 'not knowing' was driving them insane, and a part of them just wanted it to be over with, to know what happened...

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Teedas! Get your ass back here!"

"Get away from me you freak! I know you can't cross that fence once I pass it so don't even try!" He shouted back as he hightailed it right in-between the poles without the magnets on top even twitching.

"You don't have anywhere to go! We are surrounded by desert you dumb ass!" She called after him but he was already well inside the dead forest that laid just beyond the fence line of the abandoned army town.

Just before he was out of hearing range, he shouted, "You will never get me!"

Breathless, she resorted to throwing rocks in his direction until she ran out of rocks. "Damn you." She said and sat down on the sandy ground, waiting impatiently for him to change his mind or concede defeat and return. But she knew he wouldn't. From a further distance she heard the distinct rumble of a motorcycle engine and raced to the entrance to the town just in time to see the beaten up, one-eyed Teedas halfway down the disheveled road.

"When I woke him up he said he didn't have a vehicle! Couldn't help us out at all!" She said beyond pissed off. "Ungrateful bastard. Ed spared his miserable life and he can't even do that much for anyone else." She muttered angrily at the cloud of dust kicked up by the tires that headed off beyond the curve in the road. She stuck out her middle finger as high as it would go and spat at the fence line. She wandered back into the town with her stomach growling noisily at her, she decided to rut around the stash that was left behind.

The girl circled around the old town and picked up the trail to the Day-care house. Then, sifting through one of several boxes of stuff, she gave up and irritably threw a stuffed bear through the gaping wall of the building. She huffed and slapped her stomach to shut it up, and sulked for a few minutes. She needed some cheering up so she eventually went out to retrieve the bear, smelling its sweet fragrance and then set it back carefully into its box, stroking its faux fur.

"He'll come back. I know he'll come back." She said to the bear and resumed her patrol around the town, looking for any cans of still edible food to add to her meager pile of questionable, long since expired food, back at the first aid station where she set up camp.

She found a bottle of wine behind the basement stairs of the generals’ quarters and happily brought it back with a spring in her step. She laid the bottle next to the bed and nudged the figure that laid on top of it. She smiled at the figure and then frowned at how little food was there. Even if she survived the eating of the expired food, there was not enough to last for more then a day or two since the troops had left the night before. She was determined to find some kind of fresh protein and went back out. She picked up the scent of something horrid and with a grimace knew that there would be something to eat over there.

She stopped just outside of the alleyway and went around to the back of one of the houses. She almost stepped right in the pile of sick that Edward had expelled yesterday. It almost made her gag but she had nothing in her stomach to add to it. So she just cleared her throat and perched herself on a counter, just inside the kitchen window of one of the houses and waited. With her hands covering her nose, she kept her eyes peeled for movement.

The decaying remains of the body in the street soon attracted carrion. Luckily, she had no trouble catching one of the huge, mean looking vultures. It clawed and scratched at her but she was able to snap its neck quickly so it died without any pain. It was pretty heavy for a bird and she had trouble dragging it back to her house, but once she had it cleaned and a fire going, she took pleasure in hefting the meaty weight to the wooden spit over the red hot coals. She gathered up more old dry wood from a nearby house and had a good store of firewood to keep the blaze going through the night. The bird's juices dripped down, sizzling on the coals and she grinned at the scent of fresh roasting meat.

"I think it'll be ready by the time she wakes up." Nina said smiling at the sleeping woman, who was otherwise dead to the world.

 


	26. Regrets in the Sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack, Henry and Dustin race to find Ed before it's too late.

Regrets in the sand

 

 

 

The day wore on, and the sun arced in the sky, continuously bleaching everything white. Old houses that were once a bright and brilliant blue or sheds that had been painted red are now faded ghosts. Only the dark shadowy areas belie the pleasant and vibrant colors they once were, and isn't that true for most things? What is on the hidden side of everything is what is most truthful and pure.

A dry husk of a soul was now leaving the line up of doors, traveling with the others back down the long and dirty road. At the head of the line, Albert drove the now emptied, green refrigerated truck that stank with the liquid remains of garbage that had soiled its once white interior. Behind the green truck were 2 other pickup trucks that followed closely behind to avoid the huge plume of dust and sand that Albert's truck was kicking up. The gravel and red clay road kept them from going too fast because they didn't want to risk popping a tire or skidding off the edges of the insanely long makeshift road. It seemed like this final excursion would go on for days.

Albert hated driving so slowly, especially with company property. Usually he would drive safely because he had an investment in the company, but now, there was no point in keeping it in good working order. At least not until he reached some form of civilization to rescue him from his own joyriding expedition. Perhaps he'll wait to misbehave, to skid and screech around on a more suitable paved surface. This long desolate road had countless pot-holes and bumps from wind and water runoff.

For an hour, Albert felt strangely compelled to review his life. The barrenness of the desert that stretched out for days in every direction made him feel lost and more then a little lonely. Away from the bustling Center, and people on a mission, there was now a moment of quiet and it unsettled him. He loved to keep busy with one thing or another, and even though the road they were on required continuous negotiating, it was still not enough to keep him occupied. He couldn't help but reflect on his final conversation with Edward.

'The poor boy never had a chance.' He thought as he fiddled with an odd looking key that was attached to the ring in the ignition. The padlock his small key fit, was now affixed to the door of Edward's tomb.

"I hope he's found it in his heart to forgive this old fool. Even though I do not deserve it. If he understood what I have said to him, I think it would be alright, and I can let go of everything."

He gazed off into the distance and could see for miles along the road that stretched out to the horizon but there were no cars or movement save for the random tumbleweeds and sand tossed around by the wind. From behind, he could see the other trucks following so close behind that if he dared to brake they would all crash into a heap, never to be found again. Toying around with that idea gave him something to do for the next hour or so of nothingness. Eventually and reluctantly returning his mind to Edward, and how the boy changed his life.

"What is a life worth? Is it worth the same as another or can it be more then that. Would my life be worth more then it is, if I had led it a different way? I was always consoled by the fact that I had people supporting me and people depending on me, I was needed and wanted. Now I am neither." Albert said to himself as the truck bumbled along on the road that leaned one way or another.

"How else can I make amends for what I have done? Is one anonymous gift enough? Would a thousand be enough? Who judges these things anyway?" He looked up at the sky, and though he didn't believe, he still asked for help from a greater being. Some kind of sign. Some confirmation that all is not lost. The sky was bare and naked, but the sun shone on as a white blinding force that compelled Albert to ask for an answer.

"Is everything doomed to turn to dust in the end? Is there a future for any of us that does not end in damn-nation?"

He stared at the sun for as long as his eyes could stand it and the deafening blare of the horn behind him reminded him to stay on the slick clay road. Albert swerved and gave a quick 'thank you' wave to the driver behind him. He saw in a split second the hanging mail box from an old post that he would have run into. He laughed at his feeble old mind trying to find answers in sunlight.

The see-through glimmer of light bounced around in front of him for a long time and he blinked to get the sunlight out of his line of sight. The residual orb continued to bounce and dance as he looked left and right. It amused him to think it was trying to say that ‘things were not all that bad’ as it playfully danced around. Suddenly, he could see a different glimmer straight ahead of his truck, a long ways down the road and he realized that beyond all possibility, after hours of being on this infinitely desolate dirt track from Edward's grave, there was a light at the end of the road. Its refusal to dance with his eyes meant that it was real and solid. As he drove on it was clear that it was getting larger. Soon he knew what it was and thanked the sun for sending it.

He slowed down his lead truck so the others behind him were right on his tail and kept on going at a moderate speed so they would not pass him. He recognized the vehicle that was now turning off of the road and he squinted and made out two figures leaving the vehicle and standing on the other side, facing away from the street.

As he passed, he swerved his green truck to avoided an imaginary pot hole and the other 2 trucks behind swerved too. They had to take it on faith that the pothole was there because they could not see it for themselves.

Albert grinned at the others in the convoy, and laughed when he knew for sure that they had missed noticing the black jeep entirely.

"Oorah, boys." Albert said to the two figures. "Just watering the plants. No rest stops out here in the middle of the desert. No plants either." Albert chuckled looking in his side mirror at the two men standing next to the jeep with their heads down. Then once the convoy was a safe distance away, Albert could just barely see them get back into the jeep and continue on down the road. He let them go as a way of fingering the wretched Center.

Albert thought that this road should have a name and decided 'Lily' would be a perfect name for it. He then said goodbye to Lily and turned north to head for home. Fiddling with the ring of keys, and finding the 3 that will soon unlock his huge vacant Victorian home. He then decided to bulldoze it all to the ground and build an even larger facility with an enormous fenced yard that will serve as a refuge for abandoned animals of all kinds. He already would have a good start with the animals he adopted from the Center, the living specimens and experiments, all of which will be a handful to take care of to say the least. They could not be returned to the wild or be sold so he was stuck with them as his own pets. He laughed at the idea, but it made him feel good to take care of them and to turn that dusty scrap of 'Site B' land into something useful for a change. He wondered what condition the soldiers had left it in and hoped that there wasn’t a huge mess waiting for him.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Do you guys see that up ahead?"

"What? Where?"

"It sort of looks like a moving dust cloud, probably other cars on the road."

"Yeah I can... a little bit... all I see is a speck of green ahead. I think it's headed in our direction."

"Any idea who it might be? We haven't seen anyone out here for a while... could it be them?"

"Could be. But there's no where to hide, no trees, buildings or anything. Time to act fast kiddo!"

"Geett ouutt ooff tthee caarr." Dustin said suddenly.

"What? No! We should get the guns from the back, Jack you take the wheel."

"We can't take them on Dad, they'll kill us for sure!"

Dustin growled at both of them and pointed to the side of the road, "Ouutt noww!" He barked the order.

Henry pulled off to the side and Jack handed him his pistol. Jack reached behind his own seat and tucked the revolver in his pants as both got out of the jeep.

Dustin remained in the backseat and wedged himself on the floor and said, "Ggoo ppootty." To which Henry and Jack exchanged confused glances but had no time to debate, the 3 vehicles were rapidly approaching. So they pretended to relieve themselves on the side of the road as the trucks passed by them with a tire grinding swerve, kicking up small rocks everywhere.

Henry about had a heart attack because he thought that they were stopping. He was then relieved to hear them continue on down the road without slowing down.

Dustin sighed and hung his head. "Iiiht waass themm... Thosse trruucks arre emppty. Wwe’rre ttoo laate."

"No we're not! We are going to find them!" Jack shouted at the dog and shoved his dad to get behind the wheel. Henry shut the rear door on Dustin who remained laying awkwardly on the floor, refusing to lift his head and talk to the others.

"I don't care what Dustin says, we're not too late." Jack said firmly.

"One of those was a dump truck, they're probably just getting rid of office rubbish or something. They had cleaned out the Center before we got there. They probably just went back to dump the garbage and old furniture." Henry said as they peeled out after the convoy was nearly out of sight down the road.

"They abandoned the Center and that other site, where else would they dump all of their top secret crap? Dustin even said that he couldn't think of anywhere else to take him since it's apparent that they failed to retrain him. Leaving that 'Site B' and the main Center could only mean that they are scraping the whole thing and getting rid of the evidence." Jack said trying to be rational. "If nothing else, there will be some evidence of where Mom and Ed would be at now. We can't risk _not_ going there and finding out."

"How far ahead does it say that place is, Dustin?" Henry said as he re-aimed the rear view mirror to show the dog's head.

Dustin stayed quiet in the back. Tucking in his head to hide his eyes from them.

"It's going to be ok. We're going to find them." Henry said reaching a hand out to stroke the dog's back behind his seat.

"We're on the right road that's for sure. But how far did they go down this way?"

"Keep a look out for anything." Henry said as he sped unsafely down the dusty clay hill, sliding to the sides but by some miracle maintaining control of the jeep. They were flying right over the potholes with little more then a bump. Jack hoped that the automatic machine gun in the trunk area wouldn't be jostled into going off. That's just another thing they had to worry about!

The barren landscape messed with their eyes. Blotches of red sand mixed with dirt and patches of tan sandy rocks gave the illusion of buildings in the distance. Jack was devastated with the thought that they were too late after all, and couldn’t look at his dad at all. He stared out the window to the right. His blurry tear-filled eyes made it hard to focus. A bit of a ways ahead of them was a lone post with a dangling cylinder attached to its top. Jack immediately recognized it as an old mailbox and 2 narrow tracks cutting a path down to the far right.

"Dad! Stop! We passed something!" Jack stared at it so he wouldn’t miss the dot of a building a full mile perpendicular from the main road. Henry skidded to a halt, backed up and immediately turned down the long cul-de-sac.

Jack leaned forward in his seat and pointed out the building that they were approaching fast on the horizon. Dustin could hear the heart beats of the men, thumping hard with anticipation, and he couldn't deny that he too was hopeful, and anxious.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

A metal animal kennel laid at an odd angle in the large dark room. Only a few minutes had passed since the wide metal door was closed and locked. The garbage reeked more and more as it circulated and melded together in fresh, new, putrefying combinations in the contained space. Every now and then the wind would kick up and rattle the door a bit and let in a miniscule amount of fresh air into the room but it wasn't enough to satisfy the hungry lungs for very long. The smell of the place was becoming unbearable, but it didn't matter much to the occupant.

His thoughts raced as to what had just happened. He lay there on his side with nothing left to do but reflect on his pitiful life.

'Why did he wink at me?' He thought as he remembered his cage being thrown on top of the pile of paper and garbage into the back of the green refrigerated truck a while ago.

Before leaving the Center, it was turned on to keep the contents cold and make sure they don't spoil on the way to the dump site. If they had spoiled, then the smell would never leave the truck and they wouldn't be able to sell it to anyone once this job was completed. Keeping the truck in sell-able condition was a higher priority then making sure the living being in the back hold was comfortable.

Edward was not comfortable. He curled up his feline body in the corner of his metal box and tried to keep warm as the temperature slowly dropped below freezing in the back of the refrigerated truck. All along the way he tried to brace himself against the shifting weight of the garbage and the apparently rough road they were going down. He could hear that there was at least one other car following this one, probably two, because at every turn the sound was constantly close behind. He tried to call out for help but received no answer.

He admitted that even though he had hoped he would die for his sins while he was at the Center, he was now scared of actually dying. The unknown blackness that awaited him. He imagined that it was even darker then this freezing, pitch black room he was now in. Years ago he read about Heaven and Hell, and wondered if there was a place for someone like him, who wasn't a 'real' human.

'Just a copy of a human. I'm less then that. Not even fully human. Dustin Hamilton kept his soul and probably went to Heaven when he died. Where will I go? I have no soul to call my own.' Edward thought as he curled his tail over his face to keep warm. He shivered in the dark and worried that he would only go to the void. Alone for eternity with no one else, not even the devil to talk to.

He shook his head and turned the idea around to be a positive one. He tried to convince himself that he wouldn't suffer anymore if he wasn’t allowed to go to the humans' Hell. And if he was allowed into Heaven, he felt that he couldn't face anyone there for the evil he brought onto his family.

'I betrayed my family! How could I?' He cried without any tears left, then attempted weakly to tell himself that it wasn't his fault, and he tried his best, to keep at least his brother and father safe by leaving them in Amystriss. He tried to save his mother in that damned army town by gutting Dustin's body. He shuddered to think of that kind human’s body splayed out there in the street no more then a few blocks away from his mother's own body... laying still...

He was quiet for a long time, apologizing to her and Dustin, to everyone, and found himself wondered what happened to Nina after all of that happened. He hoped she was able to get out of the town at least, because she would be unable to leave by herself after everyone else had gone. The perimeter line would make sure to keep her contained there in that damned town. The men berating Albert around that huge table said she went missing, so she might have left and is now safe after all, he hoped.

He thought about what his brother and father might have done after leaving them at the safe house. Did they try to find him? What would they do if they only knew what happened to Janet. What he had done. He wept as he thought of all of the things that his family had done for him.

'No. Jack's family. I can't include myself in with those good people. I was just their pet for a time. I was never a true family member no matter what they say.' He thought miserably. 'I deserve whatever hell is coming my way. I'm the betrayer of trust. Murderer of the innocent. Runaway, liar and I'm even a useless failed experiment.'

He shivered as his few tears froze on his fur. He was then aware that the cold wasn't as frostbiting as it had been. He could sense the heat radiating in from the outer walls and figured that they were getting closer to the desert and away from the shade of overhanging trees and buildings.

'So they're going to bury me... in the desert. That is... if I survive the trip out there. The air is getting very thin... and hard to breath.' He thought as he saw his breaths clouding up the room.

"Doesn't help that... I'm still loosing... some blood." He muttered tiredly. The cut on his forehead wasn't fully healed yet, and blood was responsible for clouding his vision and not just the breaths.

He gasped a few times and was unconscious before they had finally arrived.

The doors to the truck were swung wide open and garbage poured out of it like a loathsome waterfall of filth. Albert ordered the other men to pull Edward's cage down from the top of the pile where it was laying on its side. They reached its narrow barred door and pulled it towards the tailgate opening and it slid gracelessly to the ground below. Edward was still unconscious so the two of them picked it up on both sides and shook it violently. Ed crashed into each wall with a wet thwack until he was awake and wailing in pain. He had landed badly on his front leg and heard a faint snapping sound. What endorphins were left, were now rushing to block the new crushing pain threatening to end his consciousness for good.

They laughed at him as he tried in vain to get to his feet. He was enraged by the laughter but was too weak and hurt to do anything but curse at them. Albert left them to do something behind the trucks.

"I'd say you really fucked up this time Number Fifteen." One of them laughed.

"My name is Edward!" He snarled at them. He painfully struggled to his injured feet and glared at them.

"Ha! Fifteen thinks he deserves a name. Bullshit! Do you know how many lives you ruined? How many men are out of work now because of you? You don't even deserve to live. You are a mistake! They thought you were going to be their greatest achievement. But now we know better, don't we." The other one said, leaning over to spit at his cage. "This is for all those lives you messed with." They shook the cage again to make Ed fall to one side with a painful thud.

"But that other one."

"Yeah, that number Sixteen, Nina, now she's a hottie. Just the girl for me, I like them feisty like that." He said when Albert was clearly out of earshot. They dropped his cage to the ground so he could see that they were making lewd gestures for what they planned to do with her.

"You leave her alone!" Ed was furious but too hurt to do anything. He was beaten, broken and bleeding everywhere. "You'll never find her!"

"Yeah right, we all know she can't stay away for long, she'll come crawling back to us sooner or later." One of them said quietly as Albert rounded the corner of the building they stopped at.

"Come on let's get this over with." Albert said grimly as the others left his cage off to one side of the parking area. All Edward could see was a huge pile of rotting wood, planks and sheets of corrugated metal all half buried in sand and dirt. There was a large very old burn mark on the ground, probably years old, with sun-bleached white things poking up from it. The wind kicked up over the pile of metal and he could see the circulating mini sand storms on the other side, but he couldn't see much else. The sky was pale blue and the sun was in full blaze over everything. Heat waves coming off of the metal in the huge pile worried him as he knew it was only a matter of time before his metal cage would turn into an oven. They unloaded the rest of the green truck and went to shovel out the other 2 trucks.

Albert left them to do the hard labor and wandered over to the metal cage. Standing next to it, Edward could only see the ends of his shoes and wanted to spit at them but he had no saliva.

"You really shouldn't have left, Edward."

"Fuck you." Ed laid down and looked away.

Albert put his hand on the top of the cage and stroked it gently. It was beginning to heat up in the Saturday afternoon sunlight. Ed was too angry to notice that the cage already had heat waves coming off of it.

"I’m sorry this had to happen. But you really shouldn’t have left." Albert turned around without looking back and went to help the others. He paused halfway as the others continued to heft stuff higher into the large room. Albert changed his mind and returned to Edward's cage and knelt down in front of it.

Edward turned around briefly to see what was going on and simply looked at Albert.

The huge man actually seemed to be concerned. Edward couldn't figure it out and waited for him to do something. Albert was hanging his head in front of the door and put both of his hands on the top of the metal box. "Tell me something. You don't have to if you don't want to... but... I'm curious."

"What." Edward spat at him.

"What jogged your memory after the mind wipe? I only know of two people able to snap out of it before you, and I want to know what it was."

"Why? So you can copy me and get your mind back if they do it to you? Fuck you." Ed whipped his tail up at him. Tiny droplets of blood accidentally landed on Albert's suit and he smiled over his shoulder at his executioner’s fate. "You're just as screwed as I am."

"I know that. I am not asking for your help. I just want to know what brought you back from the wipe." Albert said calmly and gazed at the disheveled cat.

Edward shifted around to face him without seeming so beaten. He thought that this is the last conversation he ever has with someone. He gave him, a least, a little bit of respect by facing him while speaking to him. "The night after you had me fight all of those guys in the sparring matches, I went to bed with big ass gashes in my arm from Nina trying to tear it off. Thanks for that by the way." He bared his teeth at Albert for a moment and hesitantly continued. "So I finally get into bed and went to sleep without knowing anything. Then... I had a dream. At least I thought it was a dream at the time. You know... I don't have regular dreams, not like you humans. I realized the instant I woke up that it was a memory."

"Of what?" Albert asked and sat down in front of the cage.

"The first time I saw her. Janet. My mom." He said softly. "I was hurting all over and she picked me up from the road. She saved my life and I didn't even know why. I remembered her smiling at me and in a moment my whole life with them flashed before my eyes. In a blinding instant but so complete in every detail. But it was one important thing that stuck with me through the whole night. She... I once left home when I was little. It was just for a day but I didn't know how much she worried about me until Jack brought me back. I remember seeing her drop to her knees and saying over and over 'Don't you ever do that to me again.' " Edward repeated and hung his head, "She didn't want me to leave her again. And so... from that moment on, I had promised I wouldn't leave her. I wouldn't forget about her. I would always protect her." He said morosely.

Albert took it all in and then finally said, "I had a dream too, concerning Mrs. Johnson."

Edward shot a look at Albert.

The big man gazed upwards to the sky and said, "I was alone in a vast desert with dark clouds all around the sky and I held a gun in my hand. I saw myself holding out the black pistol and pulling its silver trigger. A loud thunder clap burst forth from the gun and the sky, in a deafening roar. But when the echo had faded, I realized there was no lightning. My tears fell like rain on the dry earth and a single white lily grew there." Albert said smiling proudly at Edward.

Edward trembled with hatred and spat blood at him. " _You bastard._ "

"Remember what I had said. When you figure it out, you will thank me." Albert said and rose to his feet, dusting off his pants. "Here. You might want this." He said and dug around in his pockets and produced a bottle of prescription pills. Picking out 2 of them, he tossed them into the cage. "For the broken leg."

Edward eyed them suspiciously but decided to eat the pills anyway. First one, the other he decided to save for later. He nodded at Albert but kept a wary eye on him.

Albert smiled and went over to assist the others, as the heat of the sun beating down on them made their skin burn. Taking a breather half way through, Ed could hear the mummer of them chatting but could only pick out what Albert was saying as he was speaking a little louder then the others. Edward thought he heard him say that the others left at the Center were 'idiots that were not firing on all 6 cylinders', and other times he heard Albert raise his voice louder when he repeated the phrase 'drawing a blank.' Edward wondered what the other guys were saying and worried about what was going to happen after they were done talking.

The wind was kicking up sand all over, and bits of it stuck to his fur where the blood clotted on the surface. It was vaguely salty and it stung wherever it hit a fresh wound. He could hear water or some other liquid hitting the ground, and his dry chapped lips smacked in hopeful anticipation of receiving some of that wasted water. The smell of some sweet soda wafted over to him and he moaned quietly for some little drip of the pop to wet his mouth with.

He could hear them shovel up some of the smaller debris and broken glass clinking together as it was thrown in with the rest of the garbage. Once the majority of the garbage was piled up in the garage, the two men went over to the metal cage.

"Ow! Damn this is hot!"

The other one just laughed and put on some gloves. They swiveled it around to face the rest of the garbage and Edward saw for the first time the surrounding area of his final resting place. No pleasant trees or even cacti. No growing things of any kind greeted the eye around the long structure. 5 large storage garage doors were in a line and the roof's peak hinted at another 5 on the other side of the building. They had been made of steel and glinted in the bright sunlight. Sand had piled up on the whole left side of it and the other was close enough to be seen from the street that they must have arrived on. The second door to the right was the only one that was open, and he squinted to see the same huge pile of garbage that he had arrived on top of inside the refrigerated truck. He felt his kennel shift forward and he lost his balance, falling again to the side. The two men laughed as they hoisted it up and carried it over to the garage.

"On three." They started to swing it upwards.

"One... two... three!"

The cage arched forward in the air and landed on top of the garbage heap, settling at an angle. Ed fell hard but held in his cry of pain. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. A few more light bags were thrown onto the pile, and through the small hole in the side, Ed could see that they were leaving, his breathing quickened and his eyes went wide with fear.

"Farewell Edward. Rest peacefully!" Albert shouted from the door's entryway.

"Please stop!" Edward tried to shout in sudden panic, but the horrible sound of the garage door tumbling down to close, drowned out his call.

The room was now black and he sat quivering in the dark. He heard the tell tale clack of a lock being attached to the door and the sound of footsteps shiffing in the sand. He called out again and again but he knew it was no use. He could hear the muffled engines coming to life and the sound of small rocks being kicked up by spinning tires. It faded quickly off into the distance and was replaced with the whistling of the wind that rattled the doors and sent sprays of sand against the steel walls.

He sat still for a long time listening to the sound of his breathing and his heart. Trying to calm its erratic beating down. He was only becoming more and more upset.

"Fucking bastards! Of course they would leave me to die in a metal cage! Metal cage in the fucking desert!" Edward shouted at the walls. "Couldn't pay for the price of a bullet?! Assholes! Fucking cheap assholes!" He panted and wheezed for a while and nearly hyperventilated.

He sensed a cloud of unconsciousness hovering over him, he felt hot and cold prickling needles all over his body and sweat where he knew it wasn't. Waves of imaginary water seeped over his head, as he went short of breath. He could have sworn he saw lights in the blackness. He collapsed to the floor of his cage and stared blankly ahead.

'Stay here. Stay with it. Don't let it get you just yet.' He thought lightheadily to himself. He knew his eyes were blurring even though the only thing he could see was a pencil thin shaft of light coming into the room from a tiny hole in the ceiling. It hit a white piece of office paper and in turn it bounced the light around in a very very faint glow. He gazed at it, and noticed that the sun had slowly moved the light off of the paper and onto something black which absorbed the rays and completely failed to illuminate anything.

He guessed that a long time had passed and was glad to realize that he was still alive and cognitive enough to think about time passing. He smiled but soon shut out the visual world. The cage had cooled down quite a bit after being put in the dark room and resting on top of the things that had been frozen in the refrigerated truck, but now everything was beginning to warm up again. The garage he was in was slowly turning into a furnace in the white hot sunlight.

The odors of the liquid waste from the labs was getting to him and he thought he might be hallucinating from some of them because he thought he heard singing. A light lilting tune with no tempo or melody. He imagined a symphony in the next garage over and shook his head to clear his mind. It only made him dizzy and the symphony turned obnoxious.

"Shut up. No one wants to hear it in D minor." He muttered as the string section died away, and the flutes and reed section mutated into the howling whistles of the wind hitting the eaves of the roof.

"Not much better but at least it's real." Edward said. "What did that old man give me anyway?" He stared at the thin white shaft of light. It seemed to be heading for his cage and he thought of counting down when he thought it would reach him. Just to keep his mind going.

'Let's start at a hundred. Ok, one hundred. Ninety nine. Ninety eight. Ninety seven bottles of beer on the wall. Ninety six bottles of... no, no... stop that. Ninety five. Ninety four. Are you really going to count down to zero? Shut up. Yes I am. Ninety... shit now I lost my place.' Edward huffed.

'Well I'm not going to start all over. Screw that. How many times have I already started over? Seems like a hundred times when you get down to it. Every other day it was like starting over, like, how should I let today play out? Should I do something different today? Maybe _not_ go sneaking out of the house at 2 am? Or maybe I should have spent more time getting to know other people back then. I think Jack could have used a break from me once in awhile. I know I can get a little needy and clingy. Good ol’ Jack. Always there without complaining, every day taking care of my dumb-ass. Patching me up when I got into a scrape. Heh. Could use some patching up now I guess.' He thought as he attempted to lick one of the wounds on his leg. His muscles cramped up and the sudden movement and pain caused him to pass out.

He revived and knew he passed out only because the light beam was nearly on top of him. 'Damn-it. How long was that one? Would I wake up again the next time I went to sleep?' He thought miserably. 'Isn't that what they do to pathetically injured animals? Put them to sleep? Sounds like a plan... I should put myself to sleep.'

Ed looked down at his disheveled fur and prodded his bruises with his paw. He was tender all over but he was able to sit up. He was too short now to see much out of the slit windows of this large kennel. He laid back down to rest again because there was no use in exerting himself at all for garbage sight-seeing.

Ed closed his eyes because the fumes were beginning to sting a little.

"I'm going to die here. Maybe it's better that way." He said hoarsely.

'I deserve to die for what I've done. How could I...?' He whimpered and opened one eye as the light hit his tail and warmed it ever so gently. It felt like the same warmth of someone lovingly holding his tail. Secretly, he loved it when his family showed affection by tugging at his tail, teasing him, and in a way showing that they accepted him even with it. He frowned at the warm light and flicked his tail so the light would hit the cage instead.

'Why. Why was I born? Was I even 'born'? I don't remember. Some experiment... test tube baby. Ha. Test tube animal.' he corrected, sardonically, 'Who was my biological mother? Was it some random stray they rounded up and took a DNA sample? Someone's pet? Is she even still alive? I know my other parent isn't. Thanks to me. Well ok fine, I didn't actually pull the trigger, but it was me that practically fingered Dustin out for the Center to kill. And somehow Nina got his body to the desert. No, she must have had help, she can't carry a grown man on her own.' Edward thought about who else helped out. 'I know there was something going on from what I overheard in the briefing room with Albert. There was practically a mutiny. Apparently Dustin's friends didn't even know that he had died, so someone else killed him... in secret? Who took his body to that damned ghost town? The others didn't know his body was there. Albert didn't know. Nina was told to help me by someone that wasn't him and wasn't anyone there that day. And what was that sweet peppermint smell all about? It seemed like I had smelled it before but from where?' He wondered but was loosing his train of thought. Instead, his mind wandered, Ed reversed the idea of someone carrying Dustin to remembering all the times that he was carried.

'Nearly everyone I cared about had literally carried me. After I had woken from that nightmare when I had scratched Mom's hand, she still held onto me and wanted to console me that night. And Jack toted me back home after I had gotten lost, he did it to keep me safe when I was frightened and lost. Dad had held me when I nearly drowned in the lake to make sure I was still breathing and ok. And when the eagles had attacked us, my brother still found the strength to carry me on his shoulders until we reached the safe house. And, he kept me from going under in the river heading towards the cliffs. Even Albert cared for me when I was very young, and carried me with him when he spoke about his daughter at Site B. I know he doesn't like to talk about how hurt he was... is.' Edward sighed and thought, 'Nina never picked me up, neither did Jen but in other ways they had been my comrades, I don’t dare call them my equals because they’re so much better then I could ever be. And even my own... umm donor, what do I call him? The original - Dustin. I remember the times when he and I would sneak off and play with the old Harpy eagles, I know it was only for a few minutes of stolen time, but I do remember it was the happiest I had been at the Center. And I guess it's thanks to him that I've been kept sane, before I left. He picked up my naive spirit. But I think Dan the man, and especially Jack, had given me more piggy back rides then anyone.' Edward grinned, imagining himself giving Jack a ride around for a change and laughed. It soon turned to a cough, he settled down, groaning. He decided to take the other pill because his leg was throbbing and felt like it was on fire. After a short while, the pain subsided and he felt lightheaded.

"They picked me up to play, to confess, to save my life and to share the love." He smiled and said. "I know... the greatest of these is love."

He thought about all of the times, before he had first spoken to the family, when he was content to sleep at the foot of their beds and listen to them breath. It was so relaxing, the metronome beating of their hearts, he would have given anything to hear it again. To peacefully fall asleep forever to that mesmerizing pulse.

"I think... it would be nice... to do that,... rest in peace..." Edward whispered and fell deep asleep.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Time passed.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Henry and Jack sped along the very long driveway and crawled to a stop at the 'lawn' of the small house that Jack saw from the road. There were 2 beat up trucks in front of the house. Each truck had what appeared to be bullet holes completely blanketing the closer sides to each other. Henry slowed the jeep to a crawl before entering the proper driveway. They saw several piles of white, thick curved bones scattered everywhere. A few had some pieces of cloth whipping around in the gusty wind at the further ends of the property.

"Jack, close your eyes. Dan you stay here." Henry said as he got out of the jeep to inspect.

"It's ok Dad... I can take it. Besides, you need backup." Jack took his gun's safety off, and Henry reluctantly did the same. They split up and slowly went to each truck and peered inside. There laid a full skeleton in each, half propped up in their driver's seats and next to each were spent rounds from automatic handguns that were on the floor of one and the lap of the other.

"There's an opened bag of money wrapped up in wads... looks like some animal had eaten some of it." Jack said as he went around to the passenger side of the rusted truck.

"I kinda figured that... there's a package of white powder in this truck here, I'm not good with drugs, it's probably cocaine." Henry shouted over and leaned back out of the opened window of the other truck. "I think it's pretty clear what went on here. Drug deal gone bad." Henry said as he went to inspect the beds of the trucks.

Jack noticed that besides the bleach white skeletons, everything else in the trucks looked relatively new and he wondered how long they had been here. He checked around and noticed the tags on the license plates. "Hey Dad? This only happened 2 years ago."

"What? You're kidding."

"No really, check the plates. This one says Feb. 08." Jack shouted back.

Henry was shocked but then thought about it for a bit. "Scavenging animals must have been here and the sun bleached the bones white. We should still check out the rest of the place. There might be something here."

They called out for Janet and Edward, but heard nothing in return. They walked around and found another pile of bones far off from the other side of the house with what looked like a briefcase with bullet holes in it. There was a long since dead tree in the backyard with 2 ropes hanging down and a half of a plank of wood below. Sand had nearly encased a lone shed off to the right side, and the wooden boxes left inside had some form of nest from an animal. Scat was everywhere, and they covered their noses to keep the potential diseases at bay. The door of the house was on one hinge and they quickly inspected the whole place but could clearly see that it held no life in it. There was a well that was close to the shed but on closer examination it had dried up and the bucket could be clearly seen at the bottom. Jack cursed himself again for not stocking up on water before they started down that desolate road. They had their minds on other matters closer to the heart then their stomachs.

After checking out every possible nook and cranny of the property, they returned empty handed to the jeep. Henry patted Dustin on the head who remained in the backseat. Dan insisted on panting with his mouth wide open, to keep cool even though it seemed to Dustin to show that he was anything less than miserable. So Dustin let Dan have full control of the body while he sulked away in a dark corner of the mind. Jack and Henry instantly noticed the change in the dog's demeanor and shrugged at each other. They felt like hiding from themselves too, but had to keep on going.

"I don’t see any fresh tire marks, do you, Dad?"

"No. They must be down that road further." Henry circled the house again with the jeep and got back onto the dirt road they had been on.

They drove without talking. Rocks and dust from the road dirtied their windshield and they had to reach out and wipe it off with their sleeves because the wiper fluid had run dry. Jack was reminded, over and over, how dry the earth had become, and looked hopefully at the few clouds in the sky. Wishing that they would suddenly turn to rain clouds and water this parched land.

As they sped on down the road, Henry began to notice that at the rate they were going, they would surely run out of gas. He slowed the jeep to conserve fuel. Jack noticed the decrease in speed.

"Do you think they're still alive?"

"I know they are. But us being stuck out here isn’t going to help them any." Henry pointed at the fuel gauge. Jack clenched his teeth and looked out his window, scanning and searching the horizon for something. Anything.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Time passed.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Do you see that?" Henry said, trying to hold back his excitement.

Jack sprang upright from where he was and looked earnestly through the dusty windshield.

Henry wiped the dirt off of the left side windshield and there in front of them was an outcrop of buildings in the mid horizon. Sparkling in the distance, the sun lit it up like a firework on the ground.

"Yeah! I see it!"

Henry sped the jeep faster to it. They slowed as they approached the steel garages. 10 large garage stalls were back to back, 5 on each side facing out, and the setup looked odd to be out in the middle of nowhere. Henry turned the jeep off and motioned for Jack to be quiet. Henry whispered, "They may have someone here yet. It's a good thing that Dan can't bark or he would give us away."

They had parked behind a pile of steel sheets and wood with nails sticking out at all angles. They figured it was probably another garage that had been taken down or blown down by the wind. They got out and closed the jeep doors, rolling up the windows enough so Dan could still be cool but not jump out or get in harm's way.

Jack wanted to check out the surrounding area's first so they wouldn't get caught in an ambush. Henry passed by a burn mark in the ground, not entirely covered by sand and dirt, and grimaced as he saw that there were a few small bones that stuck up from the old burn pile. He let Jack walk further away, not wanting him to see this. His heart felt very heavy as he gingerly pulled a long curved white rib bone from the ground. There was another rounded white bowl close-by, a skull. He held it up, and saw that there were numerous bones of all types underneath. Although they looked old, and had been long since burned and half buried, he couldn't help but pray that they did not belong to his son. Jack came back around from the perimeter, and saw what his dad was looking at. He came over slowly and had his hand to his mouth. He knelt down next to his dad and sadly picked up a mandible for an animal.

He sighed and said quietly, "It's ok, damn I was worried... This is from a dog. A small one, it's not feline at all. The teeth are wrong. I know it's not his. I used to read up on anatomy back in the day when we were trying to figure out what his bones do when he shifts... These aren't feline over here... let's keep looking." Jack said. They saw other bones laying there and Jack carefully took the longest femur from his dad's trembling hand. "Shit... this, however, is from a small human, but... I'm sure Ed is taller then this." He said holding up the old burned femur bone next to his leg, showing that it was indeed too small and oddly bent. It had belonged to a poor toddler chimera that suffered from overly porous bones. The calcium was not evenly distributed along the length of it, so the young chimera probably couldn't even stand. Jack set it back down respectfully and let loose some tears.

Henry stood up growling, "Those bastards are gonna pay for this." He said with clenched fists. "These might be the remains of the other 14... those poor children..."

They scanned the area but found nothing new left there so they double checked their weapons and crept over to the garages and pressed their ears on the first 2 stalls.

"I don’t hear anything." Jack whispered to his dad.

Henry shook his head as well, and they cautiously walked over to the other side of the garages. Making sure that they weren't going to be surrounded. No one was around at all. No sound. "These are quiet too." Henry said and bit his lip.

Jack shouted, "To hell with this!" and flung the garage door open and coughed at the sudden cloud of dirt. "Ed! Mom! Are you guys in here?!" Jack jumped onto the pile of debris and began to dig. Henry opened up the garage he was in front of and did the same.

"Honey? Edward! Can you hear me? Where are you?" Henry shouted, pulling bag after bag out from the garage. Jack slid off of the pile getting a nasty scratch from a broken beaker bottle. He pulled out the remaining bulb of it and took it over to show his father. "This is the place! Look! This is where they take their stuff."

Henry took the bottle from him and grinned at Jack but then threw the bottle as hard as he could into the street. "Let's find them."

Together they searched the garage Henry had opened, throwing everything outside of the doors, papers, equipment, everything. Henry stopped when he saw that Jack's leg was dripping with blood down to his socks.

"Jack get down! Come here." Henry ran to the jeep and got out a rag, quickly wetting it with a dribble of water that was left in a cup, he took it over to Jack.

"Hold up your pant leg." Henry wiped off Jack's leg and wrapped the cleaner side of the rag tightly around the deep scrape.

Jack put his pant leg down again to help keep the toxic trash from it. He quickly continued to unload the garbage bags. Henry saw there was something odd about the spot where Jack threw them too. Walking over, he noticed the tire marks and other footprints in the dirt parking lot.

"Jack, look." Pointing at the trail leading over to the garage on the other side. "It ends here." He said as he held up the thick padlock affixed to the door handle. They tried to pry it open with a heavy wrench that Jack brought over from the jeep, but it wouldn't budge. Henry had an idea.

They were able to open the garage door by using the tire-jack from the back of the jeep. They rammed the handle of the wrench under a small gap at the bottom of the door, and used it like a leaver to fit the tire-jack under. Every centimeter they got, they would kick the tire-jack further under the door until it was solidly centered. Henry and Jack took turns pumping the tire-jack to force the door open from the bottom. The metal bent, creaked and rattled and finally they heard something break and the door bounced upwards and fell back down loosely. Henry lifted it above his head and had to jump up high to get it to stay on the horizontal track above so it wouldn't slam shut behind them. Henry jammed a rock in the track to keep it from closing once they were inside. Meanwhile, Jack was busy throwing the nearest bags outside.

"Mom! Ed! Say something! Where are you?"

"Don’t worry we are gonna get you out!" Henry shouted as he hefted the heavier lab equipment and machines outside behind them.

"Dad look! There’s a metal box over there close to the top."

"Help me get it down." Together they scrambled to the top of the garbage heap and slid the heavy metal box down the pile to the ground. Jack was halfway opening it with the wrench as a lever again, when Henry stopped him.

"Jack, listen. You don’t have to see this." Henry put his hand on Jack's shoulder.

Jack had a vivid flash about what horror might be inside the box. He clenched his teeth and stared at his father. "He’s my brother!"

"It may no longer be him though. You know what they do there, at that place."

Jack had tears streaming down his face. "I don’t care, he’s still my brother!" Jack pushed his dad away and pried opened the cage door.

 

They gasped and time stood still.

 

There in the box was a mound of black and gray striped fur. The box had red blood smeared and spattered all over the inside walls and floor.

 

" _NOO!_ " Jack was horrified and knelt down in front of it. He threw aside the wrench and hunched over in front of the cage's opening. Trembling, he leaned into the box. Henry fell to his knees then side, and held his hand to his mouth, sobbing.

Jack gently picked up the limp, heavy cat and pulled it slowly out of the box, trying not to hit any part of it on the narrow door frame of the cage. He stroked the fur as his tears dropped onto the matted patches of dead blood. Jack rocked back and forth cradling Edward in his lap and stroking his back. "He... always liked it straight..." he said as he brushed the matted fur back into place. He laid his hand on his little brother and kept rocking like he was holding a fragile newborn. Stray black hairs came off in small unhealthy patches. His tears poured onto the body as he kept rocking back and forth.

 

 

"...mmmurf?" Edward groaned softly.

Stunned, Jack stopped moving and jerked his head to his dad and back to the bloodied lump of cat on his lap. "What? Ed! You’re alive!" Jack said jubilantly, hugging Edward, wiping his eyes and then cupped his shaky hands around the soft furry head.

"mmmmhhh jaaack? oh... sorry... so yoouu... died too... i'mm sorryy..." Edward whispered sadly and fell asleep.

"He’s lost a lot of blood... we need to get him to a doctor." Henry's voice quavered as he staggered to his feet.

Henry helped Jack up off of the hot ground, never letting go of Edward. Together they walked to the jeep and Henry took Edward briefly so his older son could get into the passenger side and buckled up. Henry held Ed tightly, choking up with thanks for every slight breath that Ed took. As soon as Jack was settled in with a towel on his lap, Henry gently placed the large bloodied cat into the towel then shut Jack's door. Henry then went to that same garage and climbed and searched for his wife but found no trace that she was there. He prayed she wasn't. He looked back at the jeep and walked around the area again, calling and searching for Janet but still found no evidence that she was there. No other tracks in the sand then the ones to Ed's garage and the ones that he and Jack made. Henry walked back to the jeep and said a prayer for Edward and Janet.

Jack wrapped Ed up and would not stop hugging him and checking him over, to make sure he was alive and real. He was terribly upset that his mom was still missing, but judging by the way Ed was found, he was somewhat glad. Hopeful that she was alright.

Henry turned on the jeep and the fuel gauge dinged a warning at them. They looked at it with dread. A moment passed, "Let's go." Henry clenched his teeth and pulled out of the garage's parking lot and headed back down the long road into the setting sun.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Ellen stirred briefly as the sun was now full on in her eyes. She murmured and moved in her seat a little, which caused a string of sharp needles to race up her spine.

"GAHH!" She shouted as she leaned back quickly in her seat.

Her eyes were completely blurred but she knew she was behind the steering wheel of her truck by its familiar groove marks under her fingers. She felt around and wondered why it was so close to her now. With her hands, she traced the line of the dashboard as it came to a jagged point. She fingered it a bit, finding the edges and then beyond and found that the whole dashboard and steering wheel column had somehow shifted to meet her in her driver's seat.

She immediately reached down and felt her legs and was relieved that they were still intact. She risked a muscle movement in her feet, one at a time and almost cried for joy that she was not paralyzed. Her left leg did hurt a lot at the spot where it now touched the dash, but that simply meant to her that it was still there. Her eyes were stinging and extremely blurred and she had to wipe them off with her t-shirt which wasn't much cleaner. Sand had practically encased the wet areas of her face, and she spat the solidified chunks out of the windshield.

"Windshield has been rolled down." She said in a daze. 'Wait... it doesn't roll down.'

She reached her hand out in front of her and felt a needle like prick on her finger, next to a dozen other sharp prickling things. She recoiled her hand and squinted at the thing in front of her. It seemed to be humanoid, but with large wings pointed up to the sky on each side. The sun was behind it and made it glow slightly.

"Hello?"

She heard nothing.

"Who are you? Do you need help? Or, umm... are you here to help me?"

Still, she heard no response.

'Oh God, I hit someone!' Ellen thought with horror. "Stay there! I'm coming out to help you!" She said loudly and fumbled with the steering wheel. It refused to budge. It had jammed her seat so hard that it hooked the gear shifter to a spring underneath her seat and rattled loudly but refused to move. She tried in vain to unbuckle herself and get out but was pinned down by the wheel and her side door. Her left leg started to throb and felt like it was on fire. Ellen placed her hands around her knee and restricted the blood flow by holding a finger on the artery under her kneecap. Then massaged the tendon to let up on the leg cramp. She tried not to think about it but the pain was all consuming.

"Fuck this hurts!" She cussed for a few seconds and rubbed her eyes again and again to clear them. Trying to see a better way out of her cab. Finally she stopped struggling when she realized that she didn't hit a person, or angel, but a rather large cactus. Two of its arms stretched up high like wings with a third limb that had just broken off, landing in front of her, right through the windshield.

"That thing must weigh several hundred pounds! It's dented the hood!" She said in awe as thin sap had pooled and dried from the impact cracks in its thick skin. "How long was I out? I thought I just left that ghost town but it's daylight out!" She said as she checked her digital watch and was surprised that she was unconscious for almost a full day. "What the hell?! It's Saturday night already?" She looked all around the horizon and was relieved to see that she was still very close to the road back to the Center.

"This road is sure to have someone going down it soon. I'll just ask for a lift into town." She said as she rubbed her legs to sooth the burn. She frowned when she saw that her arms were now sunburned because they landed on the dashboard in the crash. She felt the top of her head get warm too, now that she was in the shade of her cab. "I never go to work without sun block... why did I forget today? I would have been alright if I just remembered that! Dang-it Ellen don't cry over such a small thing... shit, even my t-shirt is fucked up. Could this day get any better?" Her voice soaked in sarcasm.

She waited for over an hour in the hot sun, thankfully, there was a vehicle headed her way down the road. She laughed out loud and flashed her lights at the car, honked the horn, and called out to them. She then stopped flashing, honking and shouting when she saw that the car was black and white.

"Oh shit." She said as it pulled up about 2 dozen feet away.

She could see the police officers jump out of their car and talking on their walkies as they ran to her truck, inspecting the underside for gas leaks. One went to her aide as the other swung open the rear doors to check for more victims.

"Ma'am? Are you hurt? Are there others in the truck with you?"

"Uhh, no. I'm alone. My legs are pinned under the wheel here and I think I fractured my left fibula, 3 inches above the ankle. I think I had a concussion and I need an IV of saline solution to re-hydrate my system. And I wouldn't say 'no' to a fast acting analgesic!" She laughed lightly.

The officer just looked at her blankly.

"It's a pain killer. I'm a nurse, well, could have been doctor. I'm more of a geneticist than anything. Now, I'm just the janitor." She said and cursed at herself for babbling on like that and figured the concussion had messed with her ability to lie. She only needed a lift.

"Well, you should stay still, we'll get you out of there in no time, so just relax and don't worry. We will take care of you." He said as he patted her hand and turned to talk to his partner who had motioned at him. They spoke out of range of her, and she could see that the other one was pointing to something in the rear of the dump truck. She tried to remember what she put back there in case it was something illegal. She then laughed at the thought that she had illicit drugs stashed away in the back and simply forgot about them. Suddenly she was stunned to remember the crate of volatile chemicals that she had taken to the ghost town. Chemicals intended on keeping Dustin's body preserved enough to make it look like a 'fresh kill'. She wanted to throw up again, remembering his body laying in that alleyway.

"Damn it..." She muttered, holding onto her mouth as she tried to see behind her using the shattered rear view mirror. She could tell that they were taking it really seriously and were on the phone with someone. They nodded at each other and both went to her cab.

"Just sit tight there, Ma'am." One said as the other rested his hand on his gun belt. After a half hour, an ambulance and fire truck raced down the road and met them with sirens blaring. "Turn that off, there's no one else out here to alert. Help me out with the jaws-of-life over here." The cop said as he stood next to Ellen's door.

The machine was soon able to chew through the door, freeing the steering wheel from its post. Then with a paramedic on each side, they hoisted her up out of her seat and laid her onto a gurney. Immediately the cops handcuffed her to the rails as she was wheeled into the ambulance.

"What the.. ? Why did you?" Ellen asked the cops but they simply let the paramedics take her away to the hospital, she could hear them follow close behind and knew they'd meet her there.

They'd arrived at the hospital and she was held there until she could explain why she had all of the formaldehyde, laudanum and noxious chemicals in a crate in the truck. Right alongside them was a recently used but empty black body bag, with ropes and a shovel.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." She said to them. "Just trust me, I did it to _save lives_. Now please, you have to let me go help them."

"Help who?"

She told them over and over that she could not divulge any specifics about it, but that she needed to leave right away by herself to finish the plan. They kept her handcuffed. The nurses applied soothing salve to the sun burnt skin and quickly gave her a sedative while setting the leg and casting it in plaster. The sedative was also to keep her from re-injuring herself. As she fell asleep, she pondered what happened while she was unconscious and hoped that Edward was still ok.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Let's go."

The four of them got onto the dirt road and started back down it again. After 20 minutes the low fuel bell toned again.

Then 15 minutes later it toned again and they turned off everything that might drain the battery or gas. Rocks flew everywhere from the tires and there was a serious risk of one of them popping but they had to risk it.

"How are we going to get back to the city? We can't wait for someone to drive by. We didn’t even see anyone at all in the hours it took to get out here!" Jack said. The only other cars or trucks on the road were the ones that left Edward to die in the large storage garages. The road was fairly hilly, so Henry would use just enough gas to get up to the crest of the hill then coast quickly down the other side, the force would help them escalate the next hill. On the driver's side, a few bare trees were spotted in the distance, marking out an elongated rectangle shape on the hill they were coasting to.

They were midway down the hill when Jack said. "Dad stop the car! Stop the car right now!"

"We can't stop here, we will loose the speed."

"Dad! Stop, and turn left up there!" Jack said as they were quickly approaching the same road that they had turned down to the decrepit old house.

"There’s nothing there. We checked already."

"But they left 2 trucks!"

"So? Neither one of them could run in the shape they are in."

"They might have gas in them!"

Henry looked at Jack as the fuel bell gave a long wavering tone to indicate the last time. Henry swerved the jeep to corner the property and let it coast down the very long driveway to the dilapidated house. The jeep slowly petered to a halt 200 yards from the nearest truck. Dan was almost out of the jeep when Henry stopped him. Telling him to watch over the boys. Dustin was having an arduous time getting control back. He wanted desperately to see how his son was doing, but couldn't see very well with Dan fully in charge.

"We will have to siphon the gas and get it over here quick." Henry stopped Jack from getting out of the jeep as well. "Stay here with Ed, I will go get it."

Jack nodded and rolled down his window some more to let in what cool breeze there was as the sun was slowly going down. Ed moaned quietly and Jack gently checked him for other open wounds. Edward was in terrible shape. Jack noticed that the towel was getting red from his front right paw. Jack tore off a little of the damp rag around his own leg and wrapped it around Ed’s paw and tightened it. He looked behind his dad’s seat and saw a few more rags that were clean in a box.

He pulled out some more rags and dampened them with the remaining drops of water from the cup. Wiping off Edward, he found that while Ed had lost a fair amount of blood, he only actually had a few cuts. Jack wiped them as clean as he could and then held the rag tightly against them. Edward winced with pain but remained asleep. Settling back down, Ed sighed and readjusted his paw so it was now underneath him. His whiskers twitched.

"It's okay Bro. We are gonna take care of you. You’re safe now." Jack could feel the jeep move slightly as Henry carefully unloaded the gas and promptly ran back to the other truck to continue siphoning.

Dustin had an idea, and forced control over the body. He tried shouting over to Henry, who was well out of his whispering range, so Jack yelled for him.

"Dustin says to get some of that cocaine for Ed as a painkiller." he leaned over again to hear Dustin's other suggestion, "He also says you can use the tire-jack to lift up the other end of those trucks to get more gas."

"Good idea, we don’t have another chance at this." Henry said as he ran back to the jeep, grabbed the tire-jack from the hold and went over to the truck and began to raise it up a foot on the other side of the gas port to siphon every last ounce. While it was filling up the gas can, he grabbed a fistful of cocaine from the front seat and put it into his pocket. Facing prison was the least of his concerns at that moment. The second truck didn’t have as much as the first, but Henry decided to prop up the left side of that truck too. There wasn't much gas in either, because it had evaporated a little over time. Henry was just glad that no bullet had punctured the tanks. However, the fuel did seem thicker then normal and Henry was worried it would be incompatible with the jeep’s engine. Satisfied that he got the last drop, he let the tire-jack down again and took it as well as the fuel can over to the jeep and filled it up as fast as gravity would allow. Handing Jack some cocaine, he instructed him to put a very small amount inside Ed's mouth. He then threw the empty can and tire-jack into the back door, slammed it shut and got in.

"Pray it's enough." Henry looked earnestly ahead to the fuel gauge. Jack was gazing at Edward, hoping that the cocaine wasn't too much or harmful to the little chimera. It was the only pain reliever they had, so it had to do.

Henry looked down at the keys and his lips pursed as he turned the key. The jeep sputtered and stopped. He cautiously turned the key again and gave it a bit of gas. It sputtered and gears ground. Several warning lights lit up. "Come on!" Henry banged the steering wheel twisting hard on the ignition as the jeep reluctantly started, and kept on going.

"Yes!" They said in unison as he backed out of the long driveway to the main road. They drove on and on. Looking at the time on the jeep’s console every minute.

"How long did it take us to get here?"

"I don’t remember... a couple of hours?" Henry looked at the miles ahead as they went down the dusty road. The jeep disappeared in the thick desert haze.

 

"Excuse me!" Exclaimed an elderly lady walking with a cane.

2 large doors swung open and a couple of dirtied and dusty men burst through, followed closely by an over alert dog.

"We need a doctor!" Henry called out over the waiting room.

"We need a doctor right now!" Jack carried Edward, still wrapped up in the towel, over to the front desk. Dustin went around in front of them and suddenly stuck his nose to the ground. He was compelled into following a path that lead to a set of interior double doors, but before he could try to read it, Henry went over and dragged him back by his belt collar. Other patients frowned at the 'wild animal' loose in the waiting room.

A tall, lean older man in a long white coat walked over and looked at the red stained towel. "What have we got here?" He asked Henry.

Henry looked at him earnestly and said, "We need to get to an operating room now, I can’t tell you here." He tried not to be heard by anyone else in the waiting room. The doctor nodded quizzically and lead them through a series of doors to an examination room. "This is my son, we are fully aware of what he looks like. He's... he is special." Henry motioned for Jack to pull back the towel once the room was secure.

The doctor stared at the black striped lump. "You must be joking, I’m not a veterinarian. You should take him down the street to the vets. Wait... did that dog do this to your cat? If so you're going to have to leash him up outside." He said tersely and waved them off.

"No, _listen_!" Henry was fuming.

"He’s not a cat. He’s my brother!" Jack said and put him down onto an empty gurney. He then grabbed a firm hold of the doctor's arm as he started to walk out the door.

"He’s hurt..." Henry placed his hands on the gurney and moved it towards the doctor, blocking his exit route. Henry looked tenderly at Edward who twitched his ear and moaned a little at being jostled.

"whhaat’s... goinng on? wherre... are we?"

The doctor jumped back. "It just... it talks??" The doctor stammered, backing up from them in shock.

"He needs help!" Jack went over to the doctor and grabbed his shoulder to pull him closer.

"What?" The doctor was transfixed on Edward.

Ed slowly tilted his head so he could look around. "where am I? am I.. dead..?... it's bright here, I must be." He said slowly and put his head back down and closed his eyes. He breathing was very shallow. The others just stared at him as he mumbled, "mmm Jack? Dad? I thought... I heard you, I’m sorry... I’mm so sorry... for what... I... did." He said finally.

Jack pulled the doctor over to the gurney. "Please, you have to help him, he’s been hurt, his leg is bleeding, I tried to bandage it but it took us a long time to get here." Jack said as his dad fished around in his pocket, producing a large wad of dollars. He handed it over and cupped the doctor's hands over it. Pleading with his eyes for help.

The doctor sighed, giving up his own escape plans and shook his head at the money. He hesitantly went over to the gurney. Leaning over the cat, he carefully picked up Ed’s leg and looked at the red rag. "I’m going to need some help. I don't know anything about feline anatomy... I only studied human biology."

"We don’t want too much attention, the Center thinks he’s dead, and we want to keep it that way, we can't let them find out he’s alive."

The doctor nodded but didn’t fully understand. He called for a nurse to prep a room in surgery. He then called the nurse back and said to bring supplies to the quarantine ward in the basement. He didn't want to attract attention either, and also worried that the cat would have some kind of contagion. "Well, I'll see what I can do." He gently felt around Ed’s spine and legs, looked at his eyes and checked his breathing.

"He has a broken leg... and probably some fractured ribs, here and here." The doctor gently prodded them with his fingers and Ed winced. "Shhhh shhhh, you have to be still." The doctor patted him on the head. "I do need a veterinarian in here though, I’m not sure what to do. Who is his regular vet?"

"He doesn't have one... umm. He heals himself most of the time. He's very special. You should know we had to give him some cocaine as painkiller. We aren't addicts, we would never do that, we just found some and had to use it because we had nothing else." Jack said, dusting it off of the towel.

Henry looked into the doctor's eyes and said, "We had to track Edward down across 3 states. I don't know what all's happened to him in the past 4 days. We do know that he's had multiple amputations, been in numerous fights, and was left to die in the desert. But, he's not bad, he's a good kid."

"Wait, wait, amputations? What did he look like before? What is he anyway?"

"That... is a complicated question. He's a chimera, but that doesn't matter to us. He's our family." Jack said with a hand on the gurney.

"Please, save my son... Edward."

The doctor nodded sympathetically, "'Edward' huh?" He said and looked over the bedraggled cat on the gurney. He couldn't deny the fact that even though Ed was nearly unconscious, he seemed to exude an air of intelligence. In his mind, the doctor kept replaying the words this cat said. It wasn't a parlor trick, or a prank, it was human speech coming from an animal. Not only that but it was intelligent, scared, remorseful, confused and asked for forgiveness. The doctor's heart went out to it. He was leaving his normal world behind quicker then he thought possible. He desperately wanted to tell others but he made a silent deal with Henry not to. He was also worried that this would all go away if everyone else knew about it, like waking from a dream and not being able to share it. His eye caught movement close to the closed door. "Hey you should keep your dog away from the door, he might get out."

"He won't. He's uh... also very special. But he's not my kid." Henry smirked in embarrassment as he went over to the dog and knelt down. "Dustin? What is it?"

"What, the dog talks too?" The doctor laughed as he unrolled some gauze.

"Yeah. As a matter of fact he does." Henry said, trying not to take offense on Dustin's behalf. He leaned in closer to the dog. The doctor and Jack couldn't hear the dog, just Henry say, "You sure? Ok. Lead the way. Jack? We will be back in just a moment. Watch after him ok?"

"What's up?"

"Dustin says that he thinks he knows someone here who can help." Henry said and let the dog guide him down the hall.

Dustin snuffed around each door down the hall and almost tripped up several people while on his mission. He doubled back a few times and trotted quickly down to the end of a long hallway. Then finding the right door, he excitedly jumped up again and again to reach the door knob with his teeth.

"Hang on, I got it." Henry said catching up to him and opening the door.

There, inside on a bed behind a half closed curtain, laid a woman in a leg cast that was elevated with pillows. She seemed unconscious as an IV bottle hung from the ceiling, attached to her left arm.

Dustin's tail wagged furiously as he neared her bed and propped up his forepaws on the side. "Eellenn! Elllenn!" He kept saying as Henry went over.

"This is your friend? She's handcuffed to the bed." Henry said as he scanned the room for other people. "Oh! She's the one that helped you out the other day. The one that helped you escape from the Center. How did she get here? And like that?" Henry asked as he leaned over her and picked up a chart hanging off of the foot of the bed frame. "What a weird coincidence she was brought here, huh?" he said perusing her charts.

"Nnoot aa coinncidennce, onnly biig hoospiitall arroundd." Dustin said after thinking about it for a moment. "Wwaake heerr uupp."

"Alright but I don't know how much help she can be, I just looked at those papers over there and it said she was in a car accident... fell asleep at the wheel apparently." He frowned. "Still... she can consult at least." Henry located the right screw that attached the rail to the bed that she was handcuffed to, then found a narrow flat piece of medical equipment and undid the screw and set the rail on a nearby chair. He roused her by gently pulling out the pillows under her leg. She shot straight up and punched Henry in the face.

 _"That hurt, fucker!"_ She shouted and fell back down to her head rest. "owww... Stupid son-of-a ... who are you?"

Henry rubbed his face and took some steps back from her. "Henr... damn you have a hell of a left hook!" He said rubbing his now red jaw. "Henry Johnson. This is Dustin, he says you were friends."

She sat up instantly, "What?! Oh my God! Sorry sorry, just instinct! What are? Why are you here?" She stammered as she gingerly swung her legs stiffly over the edge of the bed. Quickly covering up with her blankets, she shot looks at the two. " _What happened?!_ " She shouted as she saw that his shirt was covered in blood.

The door to Edward's room swung open. "Stop! Whatever you are doing stop it right there!" Ellen shouted at the doctor who was just about to make the first incision. "Stop stop stop... Henry, wheel me over there would ya?" Ellen asked as he brought her to the table where Edward laid on his back. Henry lended an arm for her to hold on to, as she stood on her good leg and inspected Edward.

The doctor stood back and handed over the scalpel to her. "I gave him diazepam and he's hooked up to a simple saline IV... but I've never seen anything like him before. I don't really know where to start..."

"Yeah, he's a chimera. Only 20 people in the world knows exactly what he's made of. Lucky for you, I'm one of them!" Ellen said proudly and coughed a bit. She then spoke very quickly, despite being doped up, and the others had a helluva time making out what she says. "Damn morphine... ok. Jack, it is 'Jack' right? Go get me a magnet. Something not too weak or strong. And you, Doctor...?"

"Sean Pepper." He said a little embarrassed.

"You're Doctor Pepper? Wow. That's a first. Ok. Where was I? Right! Yes. I need your plasma incubator and a whole lot of electrolyte solution."

The doc left for the incubator and other supplies for surgery, he had to hold back the urge tell everyone about the impossible case he now had. Especially since he was getting many odd looks from his co-workers.

"Ok, umm, I don't know. Uhh, Henry? What did you use to get Edward back on his feet when he was injured? I heard you guys found something that helped him heal, what was it?"

"Oh um. Pangal Blaster."

"What? You mean the power drink?"

"Yeah just plain old Pangal Blaster. He likes the grape flavored ones."

"Ok, well, go get me some of that, but what we really need now is a blood transfusion. Ah Jack, thank you." She said as Jack handed her a magnet from the nurse's station fridge. "This will help out some, but just to seal the cuts on his skin. It would be so much easier if he were human, then we might be able to give him some of our blood. But it would be very risky. His blood is, of course, not natural. I don't know if we have time to grow some of his in that incubator the Doc is bringing. Damn. I wish we had more time, and the right tools." Ellen said as she gently waved the magnet over the cuts. The fur disappeared and turned to skin only for a second as the area resealed together.

"He's lost too much blood." Ellen said as she waved the magnet over Ed's arm and it barely healed. She had to get back into her wheelchair because her leg was throbbing with pain and in turn making her head hurt, she needed her concentration elsewhere.

Jack was nervously rocking side to side in a dazed trance. He found himself fiddling with the make shift bandage around the cut on his leg. He winced when he fingered the abrasion but then suddenly remembered something important. "Oh wow. I don't know why I didn't think of it before! Oh God I hope it works."

"What are you talking about kid?" Ellen said.

"I have his blood! We did something a few years back so we could say we were blood brothers. We were tired of saying he was adopted so we both cut our palms, and shook hands, becoming 'blood brothers'. Later we found out that I was able to heal a little faster then Mom or Dad and it's because of his blood in my system, it must have grown and spread all over and I think it can help!"

Ellen held up her hands for him to stop talking so she could contemplate what she was hearing, "Wait a minute... you have his blood... in your veins... how are you even still alive?" Ellen said waving a confused arm at him.

"What?"

"It's impossible! He has magnititals infused in his cells. They can't survive outside of his body for very long. Only a couple of hours. His blood killed the lab rats that we injected it in." Ellen said awestruck as she wheeled over to Jack.

"It... killed them?" Jack said worriedly.

"Yeah, but that was almost instantly. You said you shared blood years ago?"

"Yeah. And I feel fine... So uh... do you think he can use my blood?"

"I think so... we can try... we don't have too many options here. Drink a whole lot of water, right now. And uh... lay down over there. Clap your hands to get it pumping. Have you ever given blood before?"

"No, but Mom said she used to, years ago." Jack said. "We have to heal him quickly so he can tell us where Mom is. We haven't seen her in days since the Center took her. I think he knows where she is."

"I know where she is. At least I think I know. But we have to do this first, he's already on his way out." Ellen said as she took Edward's temperature. "It's dropping fast."

The doctor arrived with the plasma incubator and a bag of liquid.

"Ok, Doc. I'm feeling a little dizzy so you'll have to help me out over here."

The doctor was brought up to speed and went over to draw blood from Jack and hold it temporarily in the incubator while Ellen prepared Edward. "Ok, now Jack, your instinct is going to tell you to go fast. Don't. His body needs to adjust to the sudden introduction of new blood very slowly, so don't go nuts over there. We don't want you passing out."

"You're going to feel a little pinch. Don't move." Dr. Pepper said as he put the needle into the inner part of Jack's arm. He winced, but thought of it like it was just him playing around with Ed and he accidentally got a claw caught in his arm. Jack took some deep breaths and almost smiled at the memories of him and his little brother wrestling when they were younger. From his vantage point, he could only see Ed's tail hanging off of the tall table. It was limp and lifeless.

"It would be better if he was in human form." Ellen said again, petting Ed's fur.

"He... turns human?" The doctor raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, he's a shape-shifter. But I don't have access to the machine so I can't change him into a human. If we could do that then the inner organs would heal themselves and he should be alright. He's still bleeding internally. Probably has..." She muttered something and dismissed it just as fast. "How can we turn him human..."

Jack and Henry both had the same idea, Henry spoke up first, "If he needs to be human, we know how to do it. We just need a huge magnet, like the one at my construction site used to move metals. The magnetic crane there made him change shape instantly. But he changed back as soon as it was turned off. It was very painful for him though." Henry rubbed Ed's ears and head gently.

"MRI... Magnetic resonance imager! Ed and I were talking about using the one in Amystriss to make him change shape so we could dye his hair." Jack said to his dad then asked the doctor, "Do you have one here?"

"Yeah, we do." The doctor said eagerly. "The MRI is downstairs, you are welcome to it."

"But we need to figure out a way to keep him human. If he changes shape too many times he might die just from shock." Ellen said as the monitoring equipment beeped along with Ed's heartbeats. Time ticked on as the doctor and Ellen went about setting Edward's broken leg. A muffled crack and snap later, the bone was put back into place but Edward made almost no sign of movement to what would normally be an excruciating experience. Ellen shook her head sadly at his lack of response and knew that he was going to die very soon, and she didn't have the heart to tell the others.

A few minutes passed and the dog became very agitated and odd. Jack nudged his dad to look. The dog grunted a few times and stared at a spot on the wall. Then it seemed like he was going mad because he began gnawing and pulling at the plug for the monitor.

"Dan, stop chewing on that, you're going to electrocute yourself." Henry said as he pulled the dog's collar away from the cord.

The dog wiggled out of Henry's grip and said, "Yess. Exxacctlly." Dustin smiled at the confused faces.

"What 'exactly', you want to die?"

The dog shook his head and pointed up to Edward's table with his nose and forepaw. "Hiimm."

"You want to kill him?"

"No Dad... I think he's saying he wants us to electrocute him. Why?"

"Friiess maaaggs."

Ellen stared at the dog's face and tried to figure out what he was talking about and suddenly laughed uncontrollably. "Dustin you are a genius!" She rolled her wheelchair over to Dustin and tussled his ears playfully. "While Ed is shifting in the MRI, we shock him with enough energy to fry the circuits of the magnititals in his system. If all goes well he will remain human after we turn the MRI machine off."

"But... it could kill him." The doctor said as he listened to the cat's already weak heartbeat.

"Then we'll just bring him back to life." Ellen said as she checked the flow of blood from Jack's arm to the incubator. "We're going to need everyone down there right now if we're doing this. Jack, I'm sorry but you're going to have to be on hand to re-administer the blood flow as soon as we get him out of the machine. Going to need a bit more then normal..."

"Anything. I'll do anything." Jack said and quickly pumped the rubber ball in his hand to give more blood right away to the holding compartment in the incubator. The doctor then told him to stop and pulled out the needle and held onto the spot with a wad of cotton. "Raise your arm and hold this here."

Ellen continued to give orders as if she were a General commanding an army, "Doc, you need to warm up the machine. Henry, I'm going to need you to ask someone for a crash cart. We might need a couple more hands. Just grab one person to help you out. Jack, can you stand?"

"I think so." He said as he got up slowly, still bending his arm above and behind his head. The others left the room on their separate missions. Jack nodded and taped the cotton swab to his inner elbow so he wouldn't have to hold it in place.

"Help this old lady out please." She smiled and leaned onto Ed's wheeled table for support. She winced with every step she had to take with her bad leg and decided to hop on the other instead. "Cart that incubator out with us, and bring his IV over here. She hooked up his IV bag to Ed's gurney to free her hands.

Jack felt a little dizzy walking along, but was able to follow Ellen down the hall.

Ellen had covered up Edward with a clean white sheet so no one would see him. Most of the people took no interest and kept about their work. Ellen instinctively navigated the halls of the cookie cutter built hospital. Jack said he would have gotten lost the second he entered the building and Ellen said she had worked in dozens of hospitals and gene therapy centers to know her way around the similar layout.

"I even worked in Amystriss." She said and winked at Jack.

"That's right! I almost forgot that you're Jen's mother. Right?"

"Yeah, I had my ex-husband Chris, who's on the town council, invite your family to Amystriss. Dustin wanted to keep Edward safe and as soon as he found you guys after the accident, he told me about it and hoped that there was a place to keep him hidden from the Center. I knew that Amystriss would let you all in, they are good people. Just over a decade ago I told my Ex about Amystriss, asking him to look after my girl there. She was 3 at the time, but loved growing up there. From what I hear anyway." She looked wistfully at the doors ahead to the radiology department.

Jack opened them for her and said, "I'm grateful to you, it was a good town."

She smiled, glad to hear that they liked it in Amystriss.

Jack continued, "I just wish they knew what really happened so they wouldn't come looking for us and risk the town's safety."

"They'll be alright. They're hardier then you think." Ellen said as they entered through the next set of doors to the radiology department. "Should be just through here."

They entered a huge beige room with a single gleaming white machine in the middle of it. The doctor was busy on the other side of a glass wall, turning dials and flipping switches, frequently referring to the operating manual. He waved them inside, then went over, and with Ellen's assistance, lifted up the heavy cat and laid him gently down on the machine's rolled out table.

"If he really does change shape he should be on his back, face up." He said as they put him in position.

"Should we give him another pain killer? Strong magnets always hurt him..." Jack said nervously.

"No, we can't give him any more or his heart will give out."

Henry, and a confused but kind looking nurse, entered the room with a portable crash cart. She was quickly briefed on what they were doing by Dr. Pepper, and was eager to help out, though still doubtful in believing. With the crash cart behind the glass walls, they attached a second set of long cords to the first to further elongate the length of wire to the paddles. They duct taped and weighed down the extended metal cable lines with heavy plastic crates they found in the storage closet. The cart was double checked in the other room, alongside monitors that were warming up for the MRI scans. The shock paddles were temporarily resting next to Edward on the slide out table.

"We want a rock to weigh the cables down, no metal allowed in here, when this thing turns on, every loose metallic thing will shoot right for the center of the magnetic tube and hit the boy." Ellen said and asked for several rolls of blue elastic medical tape to fasten down the paddles to Edward's chest. "We have to make sure the paddles stay on his chest, delivering the electric current, but are not so tight that they keep him from breathing as he grows in size." She muttered as she wrapped the blue stretchy tape all around his body. She then slid him down to attach his thin arms to the wrist braces to keep him firmly attached to the table. Otherwise, he might actually start rolling with the circular magnet as it goes around him laying there. His hind legs were simply too far from the leg bands so she wrapped the ankles up individually with the elastic tape and tied each foot to their corners of the table. Splayed out, he looked like he was stretched out on a rack like a mid-evil torture victim.

Edward moaned softly in his sleep. Ellen stroked his head gently, praying that he either has a successful recovery... or a quick and painless death.

The doctor escorted Ellen out of the room to the switchboard in the adjoining room. He then went back to the MRI and slid the table into the huge machine and Edward roused a little, feeling the pull of the huge dormant magnet encircling him.

"Are we ready?" Ellen wiped her face of tears so the others wouldn't see. The nurse held on tightly to the crash cart so it wouldn't race back into the room. "Can you set it to its lowest voltage? If he doesn't stay human, then keep raising the power level till he does. We should know if it works or not within a minute." Ellen wiped her face again and propped herself up against the desk and looked for confirmation from the others.

"Yeah, I think we're ready..." The doctor and nurse said checking the milliamps and computer screens.

Henry held tightly onto Jack's shoulders in front of him, who in turn gripped the desk.

Ellen took a deep breath. "Here we go...aaannnd... NOW!" She ordered and flipped the switch.

 

 


	27. The Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed's heaven isn't what he expected.

Chapter 27 The Moment

 

 

"I hear a new world calling me."

The air was crisp and clear. A light breeze swept over the grass and the trees swayed into it in peaceful waves. Children were heard laughing and playing all around. Most were busy kicking a pinecone to each other and calling out who should get it next. Flowers of all shapes, sizes and colors bloomed all around him and the clouds were light and airy. The day was in perfect harmony.

He looked up from where he lay flat on his back, at the brilliant bright blue sky behind massive branches and deep green leaves. He was glad that it was much cooler now then before, where nothing lived in that dry, hot place. He turned his head slightly to the left and saw a huge oak tree growing up all around him. He realized he was actually cradled in-between 2 of the large roots that splayed out and intertwined like thick gigantic ribbons on the ground. He followed the main trunk up and saw at least a dozen very good places to sit or lay down in its enormous branches. The tree almost seemed to be as old and big as time itself. A small bird flew over to a twig and preened itself, completely ignoring him below. He had the random thought of how nice it would be to write something up in this oak tree at night. The bird chittered startlingly and flew away in a hurry.

Over head, he saw a pinecone fly only a foot in front of his upturned face. One boy shouted urgently for him to watch out. He gasped as it narrowly avoided hitting him, and jerked his head up to see the boy trotting over.

"Sorry about that! Here." He said and held out his hand.

Edward took it and got to his feet. Wobbling, he splayed out his bare toes in the soft waving grass and smiled. The sweet fragrance filled his lungs and he took pleasure in wiggling his peach colored toes in the green dewy meadow.

"Where am I? How did I get here?" Ed asked.

"Where? Well, it's not really a place, and you are here until you don't want to be." The boy said and shrugged.

He seemed to Edward to know more then he let on. 13 other children ran past the plentiful tree trunks, shrubs and fields, frolicking with the birds and animals. An owl hooted and its mate glided over and joined her in the crook of the tree. High in the bright blue, eagles flew in concentric circles and one dove down suddenly to the ground. The huge bird picked up a black rat and looked like it was about to take it away as food.

Horrified, Edward ran to save the poor rat when the boy stopped him by grabbing his arm. "They're fine, they like to play that game." He said as they both watched the rat scramble up the eagle's back and flip over in front of it. The eagle tumbled over with wings splayed and flapping as it cawed with happiness. Ed has never seen anything like it before and was dumbstruck.

"Can you walk?" The boy said.

"I think so..." Edward said and took a few hesitant steps forward, holding out his hands for balance on the large tree roots.

"Good, I have to show you something."

The breeze played with the birds and a soft light song filled the air. The vibrant green and luscious blue sky swirled around and danced with the music. Even though it was daytime, he couldn't see where the sun was, it seemed to be just bright with no obvious source of light. They walked down a path that wound around the whole meadow and Edward breathed in the peaceful ambiance. There was a cliff face some distance away and what looked like mountains all around the horizon. He could hear something splishing and splashing on rocks but when they passed by a long winding path of dry polished stones, he couldn't see what could be making the noise. He trotted alongside but the boy walked on top of the path of rocks and followed it until it went from pebbles to larger stones to jagged rocks and eventually boulders before the huge drop off at the cliff. Edward didn't want to walk on the rocks and was content to stay on the long grass next to it while the boy skipped along on top of the rock bed all the way to the cliff-side and jumped down off of the edge.

Edward gasped with horror as he saw the boy disappear from sight. He ran to find him, quickly climbing down the cliff face. The boy just laughed and showed him the narrow ledge he was standing in, cut into the side of the cliff. Together they climbed back up the cliff face and found a dirt path lined with foliage. They walked down to the grassy meadow below, next to the continuing path of stones. The same awol pinecone landed in front of Edward's feet and he stared at it for a second as his heart skipped a beat. He was convinced it would do something extremely loud and blinding but it just sat there on the grass. Ed laughed at his stupidity and kicked it back to the children playing. 'Pinecones don't explode.' He thought to himself and watched the children kick it back and forth.

"This is wonderful." Edward smiled at the warm jubilant surroundings. "I like it here."

"I'm so glad you do. We've been waiting for you. But... it's not up to us if you stay..." The boy seemed to be debating something with himself and eventually sighed and led the way over to a glittering pool of water. Though animals frolicked everywhere, there were none anywhere near the water. They all seemed to avoid it.

The pinecone flew through the air and hit the pond. It floated and wobbled for a moment then inscrutably glided to the side of the pond and rolled up the slight hillside and rested there. The other children seemed to be afraid of the wet pinecone and one actually climbed a tree to get a different one to play with instead. They then resumed the game as if nothing happened.

"Why are they afraid of the pond, Brother?" Edward asked, seeing how the kids are different now when confronted with the water.

The boy smiled at being called his brother. He thought it was because Ed remembered him from before. The boy glanced back at the glittering surface of the water and was thinking hard about how to explain it. "The others are done with it. They no longer want to play in the water."

"Is that where we are going?"

"Yes. You should see something..."

They walked over to the pond and its surface reflected the clouds and the waving trees. Edward stood nervously next to the boy.

"It's just a pond. What's so special about it?" Edward asked.

"You have to lean over and look deep."

"What will I see?"

"It's different for everyone... umm, it's 'The Moment'." The boy said almost sadly.

"The moment? What moment?"

"Your moment. The very second that you have to choose... if you want to stay or go back."

Edward leaned forward hesitantly. He turned and looked back at all of the children, some were waving him forward and others called him back over to play with them. He closed his eyes and began to breath uneasily. He could feel a nauseating tickle in his stomach and put his hands to his knees for support. "I can't swim. I don't like water..." Edward said to the boy with his head tucked in.

"It's ok, just look in."

He took a few steps closer to the pond but made sure to keep his toes from touching. He held his breath and peered into the water.

At first he could only see the same familiar reflections of the white airy clouds, trees and bright blue sky. But slowly there was a dark low hanging thundercloud blowing in from ahead of them that cast its shadow over the pond. Wherever it covered, the images below would swirl and fade into view.

Inexplicably, there appeared unnaturally straight lines under the water, he could see a faint row of lights blink. There were moving figures off to the far side of the space, and a mostly cylindrical tube laying on its side. He could see brilliantly bright wild circular arcs of lightning, sparking and smashing all around the tube. He became frightened but didn't want to turn away. He could almost hear the bang of the bolts hit the 3 solid walls and a clear wall and he saw sparks pouring out from a strange box with lines coming out of it at one side of the room heading towards the lightning riddled tube. As the cloud turned the sky overcast, Edward could see the pond virtually transform into a rippling window, like a skylight. He was looking down on a room with a lone child hovering just above a slide out platform. The child was being suspended in mid air inside the huge hollow of the machine. His hair turned white from the roots to tips as the body was splayed straight out like a star. It convulsed with sickening seizures in the electric current.

Surprisingly, the lightning bolts were clearly emanating from the boy's body and were striking everything around it. Invisible dust clouded the room but were highlighted with every single bolt of energy. Spinning around like a tornado, the lightning strikes were slowing down as time seemed to now crawl along in the room below. Edward clutched his chest as he felt his own heart slow to a stop while he stood there next to the water.

The boy standing next to him grabbed his shoulder and spoke urgently. "This is it! You have to choose! This is the moment!"

"I don't understand! What choice? Who is that down there?"

" _That's you_. This is your moment that _you die!_ " The boy said and the pond began to dry up and become smaller.

"What?! What are you talking about? I feel fine!" Edward said confused, stomping his feet to prove that he was really there and alive. The water receded away from their feet and dry sandy cracks formed all around the water's edge.

"If you let that body go, then you will feel no more pain at all, you can stay here with us. We've been waiting for you..." The boy said and held out his arms as a welcome.

Edward shot glances around at all of the children and suddenly recognized every one of them as being the other children that played in the lake in the previous vision. The boy was Fourteen and he had tears in his eyes. Edward could tell that Fourteen wanted him to stay, but knew that it wasn't up to the kid.

He looked down, back at the room below, as the last lightning strike arched around the boy's whole body and re-entered it through the boy's gaping face. It slammed him into the table and he laid there, lifeless, still and cold. In slow motion, people ran towards the table and pulled it out of the machine. They frantically tried to revive the poor child.

Suddenly Edward could hear a faint clear echo of what they were saying.

"He's not breathing! Edward! Wake up, snap out of it!"

"I know him... he's my brother..." Edward said as he stepped forward to watch. He gripped his chest but couldn't feel his own heart beat anymore. He struggled to breath.

"Don't quit! Come back to us... fight for it!" Henry said as he held onto the young boy's hand, gripping it as he trembled.

"Dad..." Edward said weakly. The pond was drying up very fast and was the size of a mere 8 foot puddle before long. Even so, the water churned, rippled and surged within its shrinking rim in a frantic display, like a miniature hurricane under the surface of the water.

"Choose!" Fourteen shouted.

"I want to live!" Edward cried back. He stumbled forward and knelt down quickly. Plunging his hands into the sloshing water, he felt it pull on him like nothing before. He somehow knew that he had to dive into the water. He was petrified of sinking into its thick undulating swells but instinctually knew that he had to do it now, if he ever wanted to return to that world again.

Edward took a deep breath and closed his eyes tightly.

He crouched down and leaped forward headlong into the water as lighting blanketed the surface of the water alone. He swirled around in the water and saw Fourteen fade into nothing. He could hear him say in a sad voice, "Later...Fif.."

The clear blue sky and bright green trees were quickly engulfed by a new brilliant sun that blinded him but he dared not look away. The white hot sun faded, spun and morphed into a harsh white florescent light and a wide stucco surface.

Taking a moment, he strained to see past the light, to see that garden again, to say goodbye... He sunk a little and moved his arms around in the thick substance that felt in all respects to be water, until he was able to turn around. He kicked his legs and swam down from the high space and saw the people in the room. The air he moved through pushed and pulled him over this way and that until he learned to maneuver in its crashing swells. Pounding and buffeting his light body at all sides. He forced himself to calm down and noticed that the movements of the air slowed too.

It was his subconscious that was attacking him and he knew that somehow he had to let go of his fears in order to move freely. He pleaded for it all to stop, saying that he was sorry for the mistakes he made in his past life and soon felt a wonderful forgiveness for all of his previous transgressions. A calm wave passed right through him that rippled outward from his soul. The air stopped churning and he hovered there in bliss. He looked downward and wanted to move closer towards the people. Hesitant and curious about the scene below him, he was fascinated that, unlike him, the people were all firmly stuck to the ground. He glided through the thick air among them and saw their panic stricken faces as all of them were hunched around the motionless boy on the table.

There was a woman there who had her hands on the boy's chest and pushed down 5 times and a white bag was fitted over his mouth and air was squeezed from it into the boy's lungs. The woman pushed on his chest 5 more times, counting each one.

He turned away from the boy on the table and saw the others in the room. He saw the pain in their faces and tears pouring from their eyes. He wondered what that boy did to cause such emotion. He put his hand to his chest and felt something... it was strange... as he heard the numbers being said, he could sense there was something happening to him.

He clutched his chest and somehow understood what was happening. He shut his eyes and imagined that he was floating down, way down into the still body. A great crushing, penetrating weight pushed on him from all sides of his soul. Smothering his freedom. He had to let it happen. He knew it was going to be alright, he had faith that it would be alright even though this was the most terrifying thing ever to happen to him.

The boy's heart thumped once.

He waited in the silent blackness.

He felt a pulsating pressure on his chest and his heart beat a second and third time.

He felt the blood go through his veins and reach each point on his body. Another compression on his chest and more fresh new blood cells waved through his body. He risked a slight breath and his lungs burned. He couldn't see, but he heard mumbling sounds all around him, coming from a great distance. They seemed to be frantically calling to him and he wanted to reply but couldn't remember their names.

More fresh blood flowed through his veins and it felt like it 'tasted' differently. It was warmer then his own, and he was able to mentally follow it down each tiny path at the same time. His heart beat again... and reluctantly it beat again... this time without the pressure on his chest.

He paused, waited and it beat again. Fuller, greater, and stronger. The sensation of pins and needles pricking every inch of his body sent shivers down his spine.

The voices were gradually and ever so lovingly became clearer and he could hear a faint resemblance to words forming.

His heart beat slowly and uneven at first but then modulated itself and he stretched out his fingers. His toes hurt and he felt a hotness coming from his chest and forehead. His head was being picked up and his hair was being caressed by someone. He grinned as it sent pleasant vibes throughout his body. He let his head rest heavily in those hands and sighed. Soon more hands joined the two, and they rubbed his arms and legs, patting here and there, and he heard noises and voices of all kinds.

Some sounded excited, and a couple sounded frightened but at the same time awed. His eyes still stung from some unknown cause but he wanted to see what was going on. A harsh bright white hurt his pupils and he squinted through his lids. Straining to pick out something beyond or in front of the light.

He tried to cover his eyes but found that his hands wouldn't move very far. He jerked them and then his feet, struggling to be released. Feeling something wrapped around his hands and feet, he was appalled to discover he had been tied to the table. He suddenly had a firm terrifying conviction about what was happening and thought with blind fright, 'They are going to rip me limb from limb! Tear off my hands! Saw off my feet and then chop off my head!'

He made fists and tried to swing at them, he writhed and kicked about and with his feet he made contact with one of the huge blurry figures in white. Driving his clawed feet outward with all his strength, he made the thing fall backwards to the ground. He kicked again but his legs were caught in mid air by a different huge blurry thing and held fast together and then plunged downward to the hot table.

He had a spasm of fear run though him as he thrashed about, sending new waves of hideous pain everywhere. He couldn't understand the exact words being said but he understood that they were warning him. That made him even more terrified that he was going to be wounded further by these things. These hands all over him were now holding on firmly and were pinning him in place as a few of the hands were still incomprehensibly caressing his head. He couldn't understand why some gave pain and others wanted to give him comfort.

He found himself squinting at the huge figures all around him as they morphed into and around each other. He panted and grit his teeth, then growled at the monsters as fiercely as he could with his sore rasping throat. He heard cooing noises and felt a new sharp pain on his inner right arm. He whimpered but soon felt his body relax into the flat table. The hands that had such a strong grip loosened almost instantly and began to pat him gently again.

He opened his eyes a little wider and could see the same huge figures smile at him, and finally he heard, and understood what they had been saying.

"You're going to be fine. Don't be scared."

"We're not going to hurt you. You're safe. Calm down..."

He looked at each face and he thought he knew the two that spoke. His head fuzzed a little and the whole room seemed to be calming down as his heart beat slowed back to normal. He smiled placidly and believed them.

"I... chose..." he whispered and fell asleep.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Ok..., he's asleep. He just needs to rest." Ellen said after slumping exhaustively back down into her wheelchair.

"I didn't expect to see lightning... Do all of your MRI patients do that? You could have warned us, Pepper." Jack said joshing the bewildered doctor.

"And you could have warned me that he'd still have claws as a human!" He laughed as he poked a finger through the claw marks in his white coat caused by Ed's feet. "I can't believe I just said that. He really put a dent in the outer plastic ring with his feet when he kicked about, he must be really strong! I bet it was all of that stored adrenalin in _your_ blood as it pumped into his system. It must have flooded his brain when he woke up." He said to Jack and told him to calm down as well or he'll get a sedative too. "Where did you find this kid?" The doctor said with childlike fascination.

"It's a long story that you shouldn't hear." Ellen said, "For your own protection." She saw him look warily at Henry and Jack and chuckled. "No, not from these guys, from... other people."

"Sorry about your machine Doctor Sean, I'll gladly buy you guys a new MRI." Henry said and pulled out his bulging wallet. "How much do you think it will be? I can at least put a down payment on it..."

"These things? At least a few hundred thousand dollars." The doctor laughed when he saw Henry start counting up what money he had available from his life savings.

"Don't. It's ok, I would have paid a million to see what I just saw." Sean grinned, "Besides, it's not your fault, it was a generator malfunction in this old machine. Some old loose wires in the wall set it off when no one was here. Electrical error. Made the damned thing shoot sparks everywhere, all by itself." He winked and patted Henry on the back. "I'm sorry but, I'm late for a patient of mine upstairs. Trust me, I don't want to leave, but I'm needed upstairs. I will come back later to check up on everything."

Henry insisted on at least compensating for the doctor's time and expertise, but when the doc refused again and again, Henry had Jack slip a few thousand in his torn lab coat when he left.

The nurse said, "Someone would have heard that so we should get you guys out of here. I can help move everyone to the quarantine ward where I can keep an eye on you." She cleared away the now charred black crash cart and defibrillator into the closet.

"Thank you, it means so much to us, you are way too kind." Henry said, planning on compensating her when she wasn't paying attention to her coat.

Ellen, from her wheelchair, clamped down on the flow of Jack's blood to Edward with some medical pliers for the trip to the recovery room. He was still attached to Edward, but in case there was an accident, there wouldn't be blood spurting everywhere from the tubes. Right after the lightning had ceased, Ellen and the nurse rushed Jack back into the room and had re-attached the tubes to allow blood flow from Jack to Edward so the lanky boy wouldn't be so anemic.

Jack was more then a little light-headed himself, so Henry had Jack put his arm around his shoulder to walk him the rest of the way. The nurse helped push Edward's gurney, guiding them to the new room.

"You know... donaating blood issn't so baad." Jack slurred and giggled. "Ii souund like Dussty." he looked around, "Whherre iss that muutt?"

"Donn't caalll mee muutt." Dustin smirked from behind them, walking next to Ellen's wheelchair.

"Eventually we're going to have to tell Ed about you." Ellen said to the dog.

Dustin nodded and shrugged. "Llaaterr."

Once in the room in the quiet quarantine ward, Jack and Edward were put in 2 beds that were rolled side by side. Edward's forehead had to be wrapped up with a cool wet bandage to help with the bruising and swelling caused by his own lightning strikes exiting and entering his body through the strongest nervous system pathways. Namely, his brain and spine held the strongest currents of electricity and from there spread out to his extremities before leaving his body to crash into everything around that room. Tiny holes in his skin were all that remained of the electrical pathways turned lightning bolts, and were easily covered with band-aids.

He also had bandages around his hands because he had made such tight fists during the whole event, that his nails punctured his own palms pretty roughly. His withered hands and feet were very tender because they were far younger and newer then the rest of his body. His feet were put in socks and hospital slippers over the bandages because they became bruised and sore from kicking at the metal and plastic tube borders of the machine. His hair had turned white from the lightening strikes that emanated from his body. Occasionally, he would shiver and twitch in his sleep as the last vestiges of electricity ran down the nerve pathways.

The nurse had to leave as well to assist a different doctor in another part of the hospital, but said she would be back to tend to them as soon as she was able. Before leaving, she limited the flow of blood from Jack to Edward to a feeble trickle, only a few drops of blood a minute, so it wouldn't be too much too soon. The process would take hours so the nurse gave them a pager to contact her should they need anything. The nurse wanted to disconnect Ed from Jack, while she was gone, but Jack insisted that Ed received as much blood as his little brother needed, and then some. Jack could not be dissuaded and said he would re-attach the needles himself if they disconnected them. Dustin picked up on Jack's earnestness and said if he sensed something went wrong, then he would contact the nurse himself via the pager, or just track her down.

Henry tucked Edward in tightly under the thick sheets for warmth, and laughed as he lifted the side bars on both of the hospital beds.

"Youu thinnk I'm gonna falll offf?" Jack said slowly with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. Now shut up and get some rest. You gotta be ready to talk Edward down if he wakes up before we get back." Henry said. "Try to find out if he knows where they are, if they moved them from that old army base or not. Otherwise, that's where we are headed to first. You have Dustin's cell phone right?"

"Yup, aand your nummber is programmed in?" Jack looked blearily up to Ellen.

"Should be, we will be back before you know it." Ellen said and balanced herself on a set of crutches.

"Heey Dad... Daad, com'ere." Jack said half asleep.

"Yeah?"

"Ed's new new biirthday is tooday. Bring soome cake..." He said as he fell fast asleep.

"So it is, Happy Birthday, Ed." Henry said and brushed his fingers through his youngest son's new white hair. Then did the same with Jack's dyed red hair.

"Dustin, you stay here and keep an eye on the boys. Make sure nothing happens to them." Ellen said and pet the dog's head.

Dustin nodded firmly and stood guard at the door as they left the room. He then jumped up to the door, and with his paws was able to flip the long switch under the handle to lock it. He knew only the nurses and doctors had keys to the patient's rooms this late at night and didn't want uninvited guests to drop in. He then went over to the couch, jumped up and laid down so he could easily watch the boys sleep.

'I'm glad I got to see you again, Ed. Please, stay alive...' Dustin thought as he gazed at the boy.

Edward's now white, and very light gray striped tail, flipped here and there as he slept, and Jack tossed and turned from time to time. Dustin kept an ear out to their breathing, so he could spot a difference in it that signaled a change. All was peaceful for awhile, so he too dozed but it was finally a tranquil slumber.

 

"You sure you can drive? I crashed my truck when I dozed off." Ellen said as Henry pulled back out of the gas station. The jeep was now heavily laden with water, food and medical supplies and a couple extra gallons of fuel in a gas can.

"Yeah, I'm fine now that I have everything, we should be good for one more parade. 'Sides, you are in no shape to drive."

"I could if push comes to shove. I just wish I had my truck, that thing could take on just about anything, but cactus's."

Henry chuckled respectfully and drove a bit faster down the black road, headed north. The stars were shinning overhead and Ellen gazed at them, informing Henry that, "A shooting star is not a star, but certain people I could name think that they are. Dustin and I have seen a lot of things at night in the desert. The skies are definitely clearer here. He said that the desert is fine to live in but its not for everyone. He said he always wanted to go down to the bottom of the sea to see what it would be like. Even bought some snorkeling gear, but the thing is, is that he doesn't like to swim. He's a little crazy." She said noticing a satellite moving across the sky. "Also not a star."

"See the constellation over there? I think that one is Leo, but I could be wrong.."

"Yeah, looks like destination moon for that one over there. Didn't realize it's already 2am. Might be daylight when we get out there." She said, guessing how long it would take to get to the army ghost town.

"Speaking of, Site B is a mad-house. How do we get to that other place without having to pass by it?" He said handing her the paper maps.

"What do you mean? You were there? What's going on at Site B?"

"What _isn't_ going on there... news crews, NASA, INS, police, PETA, you name it."

Ellen stared ahead for a little bit. "What?" she gave a sideways glance.

"I was hoping you would know, we figured out why most of them would be there, but, what did you do that NASA would be so interested in? They had huge dishes and telescopes and technicians all over the place asking if we knew anything about upside down tornadoes on the moon."

Ellen sat dumbfounded for a few minutes. Apparently a whole lot of things happened while she was out cold in her truck. She tried to think rationally about it. Then started to laugh at the sky because reality itself just hiccuped insanity all over them.

"What? What's so funny?" Henry asked.

"Your little boy is made up of stardust! See, there's partials all over the place that we can't see, touch, or even sense. Over decades of study, the Center found a way to draw in all of those billions times billions of particles to make up the missing composition for the chimera's bodies. Since there's such a huge requirement for each full human body, the Center made sure that Nina and Edward would never be human at the same time. It would require way too many 'local' particles." Ellen said and chuckled at Henry's expression.

"Stardust." Henry said staring at the northern stars ahead.

"In essence yeah... nebulous material that eventually makes up stars. Out here in our part of the galaxy the FMAB2 rouge nebula had been sucked in by the sun and our planets. There are asteroids coming in from way out in space that continuously hit the moon, they must have the same particles with the necessary molecular structure that the magnititals draw in. Our machine, we call it Bessy, flips the electromagnetic switch in the chimera's bodies. I'm guessing that when they surgically removed Edward's hands and feet and re-grew them over and over, the particles were sucked in from an asteroid that had hit the moon eons ago. Once the limbs were detached from Edward, the magnititals essentially died and couldn't be attracted back to his living body. So the ones still living had to get new particles from somewhere else." Ellen said and looked out the window for a bit, then added,

"Nina was already using hers at that moment. I didn't think about it before, but even now she is using all of the original particles, she's still human as far as I know. She needs the machine to shift like Edward did, but we cheated with him by using the MRI. For the first time ever, both of them are human at the same time! I can only imagine the size of _this_ lunar tornado for our particle man!"

Henry tried to understand half of what Ellen was saying and came to an enlightened conclusion. "NASA was somehow able to track those smaller lunar tornadoes right to the place where they landed; Edward's body at Site B. So what you're saying is, is that there has to be a different lunar tornado that is needed to build Edward's new full human body. And... that most recent tornado has to be much much bigger now? Do you think they might be able to track its path to Edward at the hospital?"

Ellen gripped her armrest and stared at Henry. "Shit! We better get Nina and get back in a hurry!" She said as Henry sped faster down the road to the army base.

"Nina, and my wife." Henry affirmed as Ellen looked at him in sympathy. She knew the only reason they would dump Ed off at the garages is if he failed his mission, and in doing so, forfeited Janet's life as punishment. She just prayed that she was wrong. "Nina _and_ your wife need this water immediately. Dustin will protect the boys until we get back."

The dust from the road kicked up and clouded the rear windows and billowed behind them into the darkness.

"I hate the desert. Even when you can't see it." Henry said.

"You and me both." She said and covered up her red sunburns with more salve.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

There was a click at the door and Dustin jumped up from his seat when he heard the latch unlock. He quickly went to the door and lowered his head, growling, ready to jump, bite, and claw at the intruder to protect the boys. He softened when the door slowly opened and he smelled the same kind nurse that had helped them out earlier. He awkwardly backed up to give her enough room to enter.

"Oh, hi dog." She said startled and smiled. "Never did get your name. They said you could talk too?"

Dustin nodded and led her over to the boy's beds. She put down the crate of supplies that she carried in and leaned forward politely to hear him.

"Yyess, Ii caan ttaalk juusst finne. Hoow arre theey?"

"Hahaha, I hear ya but I still don't believe it!" She smiled warmly and stroked his head. "I just came in to check on that. I think that one has given enough blood to fill a bucket! Here, let's see what we can do about that. Otherwise he might run out himself!" She said and pulled out a weird looking circular clamp and halted the flow from the tube about 4 inches from Jack's arm and put another plastic pincher down just ahead of it. "They both will have hypovolemia, decrease in blood plasma, so I'll have to keep them on the IV. Don't let them take it out ok? They'll still have some headaches and polydipsia, extreme thirst, so tell them to drink plenty of fluids." She explained a little more and oddly enough, she was no longer feeling foolish talking to the dog like a person. He seemed to exude a sort of understanding that she wished more people would have. "You know it's very very lucky that he was able to donate to the little one. Cats have 3 blood types, people have over twice that and there isn't much study into zenografting, umm, one species grafted into another. I mean, human to feline isn't very likely. So the odds of their blood being compatible is remarkable to say the least. They really are lucky."

Dustin nodded, even though he only understood half of what she was saying, and watched her move the circular clamp slowly over to the machine, hit some buttons and then followed the tube on over to Edward's arm to get every last drop from the tube. "But I suppose he is at least half human. He looks human enough..." She watched Ed with curiosity as his tail flipped about. She gently brushed his hair back from his forehead to see if the faint stripes went down to the scalp or if it was a dye job. Even though she witnessed his transformation before her very eyes, it was still hard to get used to his unique physique. But, she pressed on, trying very hard to remember the early years of training and old biology classes in college when they dissected animals to get the students used to the sights of organs and systems. They never did dissect any cats, and she was both thankful and not for that. It would have come in handy now to know a cat's internal structure, but now that she has a half feline patient, she might have felt terribly guilty for dissecting one years ago...

She sighed and decided to treat him like any other human patient. She then got out a penlight to check out his pupils. She lifted up his left eyelid. Surprised, she almost jumped to see it still slit like a cat's eye. "Oh goodness!" she chuckled and eventually lifted it up again and wondered what his eyes should look like, when he is healthy. She shrugged and guessed they looked alright, despite being bloodshot, and checked the pulse under his chin. It was slightly elevated, but within normal range for someone so lightweight. It took some time to figure out what must be normal for him, versus, what his vitals are now. He certainly looked like he had jumped clear of death's door, and would not be knocking on it anytime soon.

She clamped down a plastic pincher onto Ed's blood transfer tube. She turned off the machine and went back to Jack. Rousing him gently, she instructed him to hold down on the cotton swab on the inner part of his elbow right after she pulled out the needle. She was very quick, and told him to hold his arm up high while she got the bandage dressing in place.

He yawned and did as he was told. He watched her go over to Edward and instead of waking him, she managed to prop up his arm and do the same for him. Bandaging up the inner elbow, she double checked the rest of his bandages and grinned since they no longer bled. She coiled up the spent tubes and tossed them in the trash along with the used needles and swabs. Then pulled the whole bag out of the trash and put it in the crate she carried the supplies in.

"I'll have to incinerate these so there's no trace you guys were ever here. I figured you wanted to keep yourselves private, right?" She asked Jack who slapped his own face to wake up.

"Uh yeah, thank you so much for helping us out, I know Dad can compensate you for your time."

She grinned at him and shook her head. "You must have had a pretty rough life if you think you have to pay for simple kindness." She said, and went about cleaning the machine and throwing the used sanitizer swabs in the same bag to be incinerated. "So what are your names? If you don't want to say, you don't have to."

"My name is Jack, and sparky over there is Edward. The dog's name is Dan and Dustin. Another long story." Jack shrugged.

"My name is Julie, you can call me anytime you need me by hitting that button attached to your bed." She said as sweet and comforting as humanly possible.

"How long will he be out?" Jack leaned forward to see him better.

"Who knows, probably a few hours. I don't really have a frame of reference with him."

"I don't think anyone does." Jack laughed a little and had to lay back down, "Sorry, got a little dizzy."

"You just rest yourself. Looks like your dog is keeping a good eye on you both. I'll come back in the morning to check up on you. Dr. Pepper is busy trying to collect and delete the scan it took of the boy while he umm... what do you call what he just did?"

"Well, transform, change, shape-shift? I dunno, it's not always like that with the lightning bolts and stuff. Usually he just has like full body tremors and muscle cramps and it almost looks like he's having a seizure and he just gets bigger or smaller. We're so used to it... I don't know how to get used to him always being human now. Ellen said that he can no longer change shape because the magnititals are fried. I think that Ed would like that because it's hard to be taken seriously as a talking cat. I understand people's reactions, it's just... annoying after awhile. Anyway, because the mag's are fried it also means that he can't heal as fast as he could before. I think he'll just be like the rest of you. But not me, I can heal faster because as you probably figured out, I have some of his old blood in my system."

"How did that happen? Were you from the same place as he's from?"

"No, years ago we uh, cut our palms and shook hands to become blood brothers, childish really, and I guess the mag's just replicated over the years in my body. But it's ok, I feel fine. It's awesome that I can give it back to him." Jack said looking at Ed laying on his side. "What I can't get over is that his hands and feet look so young compared to the rest of him. No calluses or deep wrinkles or nothing. Those bastards cut them off and made him re-grow them from scratch, now his original hands and feet, and probably his tail, are all at some lab being dissected. You can tell where they cut them off because the color is slightly different from where they made the incisions. His feet look like they were cut off with a hacksaw. It makes me sick." Jack said and spit into the trash next to his bed. "To do that to a little kid? He only looks 14, he's actually 5 years old. But I think I'm talking too much. I'm sorry."

"No no, don't worry about it. I'm glad that you all were able to escape those wretched butchers. I can't imagine anyone doing that to such a young kid. I admit I'm curious about him but I respect your privacy and I swear not to tell anyone. It must have been really hard for you guys to keep it a secret. Speaking of, the doctor would be here with you but he is trying to finagle the tapes from all the cameras that might have got you all coming in as well as anything that might show that you were here. I should tell him to get that woman's footage as well. She's also with your group I take it?"

"Yeah, well, she is now I guess." He smiled.

"Ok, I know the cop's can't hold her because they don't have enough evidence that she actually did anything wrong. I overheard them earlier saying that the prints they found don't belong to anyone and the chemicals are not illegal to own by themselves. I believe they were planning on releasing her tomorrow anyway. She was cognitive enough to discharge herself, so you don't have to worry about a thing. From what I've seen, she's as good of a person as the rest of you, and there are so few out there willing to risk themselves for someone else. I wish there were more people out there like you all! Welp, here's some food for you and Edward when you're strong enough to eat, but I didn't know what you liked, so I brought in some orange juice, water and milk." She said and glanced at the nearly emptied IV bags hanging down. She figured that Ellen had set it up to drip faster. "It seems you really do heal quicker then other people. I can take those IV's off of you both in a little bit."

"Oh, umm... if it's ok, could you bring him some Pangal Blaster? I have money in my coat over there for the pop machines."

"Don't worry, we have some bottles in the nurses lounge I can grab. I'll bring it in in a minute." She said and went back out of the room.

"Dustin, you awake?" The dog went over to Jack's bed, put his head on the sheets and wuffed silently at him. "How do you think he's doing?"

"Juust finne. Hhe prrobabbly ffriied soome neeurrons inn therre soo hee mighht forrgett somme thinngs."

"Yeah, I kinda thought about that. Last time he was in that bad of shape was when Mom first found him on the street. Right after... well, you know." Jack said and looked at Edward sleeping on his side away from him. "He lost _all_ of his memory of the Center for _years_. I'm worried he will forget about us now."

Dustin looked sadly up at Edward on the bed and gave a reassuring grin at Jack. "Wwee'll mannage. Aat leaast hhe iss allive." He said and went over to lay back down on the couch. The nurse returned briefly to set the Pangal Blaster on the cart next to Edward's bed and said that the doctor had gotten the security tapes without hassle, but added that he had his own rounds to attend to so no one would come looking for him. Jack said it was alright and that they were probably just going to sleep for a whole day at any rate. The nurse then took the IV bags down and unhooked them from the boys. Repeating over and over how remarkable they really were, and if they only knew just how impossible it was that they were still alive.

A few hours passed before Edward stirred in the bed. His tail flipped around lazily at first but then hooked over his waist and tickled his own nose. He sneezed and woke up, still a little bleary eyed. He grabbed his tail and was about to throw it back behind him as usual but then squinted at it, he studied its white fur and mumbled something.

Jack woke up and leaned forward to see what Ed was doing.

Ed laid on his back and still held the tail with a very confused look on his face. He then noticed Jack and held it up a little higher and said, "This yours?"

Jack looked surprised at Ed and laughed at him. Then stopped because he did not want to set off or alarm his brother again in any way. "No, sorry... not mine."

"It's nice, whoever it belongs to." Ed mumbled drowsily and let it drop back down and dozed.

Jack and Dustin exchanged bemused glances at each other. Edward eventually stirred again about 10 minutes later and turned to face his company on the next bed over. "Hi." He said politely tired.

"Hi." Jack replied with a grin, thankful that his brother was calmer waking up this time, rather then the earlier panic attack from waking up in the MRI machine.

"Why does it smell like burnt hair in here?" Edward said crinkling his nose and wiping his face with his wrist.

"Umm... that's you."

"Oh. Why?"

"20,000 volts will stinge a bit."

"What?" Edward said as his tail flipped about again. "Who's is this?" He said and grabbed a hold of it, then squinted his eyes, looking around for the weirdo that would sleep that close to him. He then gave it a pinch as punishment, and winced. "What?! Why is my tail white? And it's all frizzy too." He held the tail very close to his hurt eyes and squinted as he examined the long crooked hairs from root to tip.

"Umm, well, all of your hair turned white."

Edward felt his short spiky hair and raised his eyebrows but couldn't see it so he pulled out a few strands of white hair and frowned at them. He then tried to straighten out the tail fur to not look so darned fluffy and found a glass of water next to his bed. Wetting his hands, he slicked it down, and finally looked around the blurry room. "Where am I? What test are they going to do next?"

"Test? No test."

"Did I fail the last one?" Edward said suddenly worried.

Jack looked hard at him and tried to figure out what answer would make Edward happy. He then thought about what tests they might have put him though. And with considerable apprehension, he knew that it was that last fateful test.

"Umm..." He said and thought, 'Did they ask him to kill someone and he passed, or he failed and they killed Mom? He must have failed because they left him for dead, but that means that Mom...' Jack thought with dread. "You uh... they said you did fine. What do you remember?" He asked, troubled.

"Who are you anyways? You work for the Center too?" Edward said squinting.

Jack could see that Edward's eyes were completely bloodshot and bruised all around the sockets. He then shuddered when he remembered the lightning strikes entering and exiting his shifting body from all points. Especially from his mouth and eyes as it arched and leaped around the MRI machine and room.

"Can you see me?" Jack waved his arms around slowly.

"Kinda. What's your name?"

Concerned, but trying to hide it, he said in a friendly way, "My name is Jack. I umm... we've known each other for a long time."

"Jack... Jack... I think I knew a Jack once." Edward said holding a hand to his forehead. "But he had light brown hair, wasn't red like yours."

"That's me! Remember? We dyed my hair red almost a week ago." Jack said hopefully.

"We did?" he gave a suspicious sideways glance.

"Yeah, we were trying to umm..." he stopped and waited for Edward to fill in the gaps if he could.

"Trying to hide from someone..." Edward said rubbing his temples.

"Yes. Do you remember anything else?"

"Kind of... there was a row of houses... a dog that ran next to you and it fell in the middle of the street. Then there was a river and a waterfall... a pretty girl threw a shoe at me... then a little tree that was set on fire..." Edward kept looking down and trying to piece together the random thoughts and memories.

"I don't remember that last part with the tree. That must have happened after you left." Jack said.

"I left? Why did I leave?"

"I think you did it to save our mom."

"Our mom? Oh yeah... that nice lady that I called mom. She was in a room strapped to a chair, just laughing away to herself. I can almost remember what happened, but it's all fuzzy. There's... stuff missing." Ed rubbed his forehead, struggling to remember.

"It's ok, just focus on her. What happened to her?" Jack said reaching for the cell phone they picked up from Dustin's house. He scrolled through the numbers till he found Ellen's cell phone number programmed in.

"She was in this old neighborhood. Houses were falling in on themselves. It was very hot there, I do remember that," he put a finger up and nodded thoughtfully, "then some guys came out of the other house and..." He stopped and suddenly looked vividly frightened.

"What? What?"

"They shot her." Edward said and slowly hung his head in utter shame. "They shot that nice lady." He began to sob inconsolably into his hands, "I think it's my fault that they shot her."

Jack couldn't speak. He just sat there disbelievingly. He stared at Edward hunched over and openly weeping at the guilt, and looked at Dustin whimpering next to his bed. Jack's whole body became flush with emotion and trembled with withered hope. But still he couldn't speak.

Edward eventually looked up to see why his legs were warm and found that the dog was now laying on them and trying to nuzzle, to console him. Ed tensed up at the sight of this rather large canine that was all over his legs, but gradually realized that the dog was trying to show affection and waited to be petted. He sensed something about the animal but couldn't place it, a familiar-ness that wasn't from memory alone.

"I thought you died." He said to the dog. Somehow briefly sensing the presence behind the eyes. He then shook his head and petted the dog and found some kind of comfort in its unabashed love. He wiped his face on a sleeve and soon had another memory pop up. "I saw someone else there in that hot place. He was laying on the ground, very cold and dead... and this large spotted cat and I started digging into his body. I think this was before they shot that woman. That cat could talk. I remember it saying that I shouldn't worry and that I needed to tell the men that I was done. But they didn't believe me. That's why they did it." Edward said as the whole event was clearing somewhat in his mind. "That's why they shot that nice lady..." he frowned and wiped his face again and hugged the dog tightly. "It's my fault..."

Jack had hoped that Ed would have remembered things differently, that they had let Janet go free even though he had failed their insidious test.

Dustin knew that the body he was referring to was his own, and hated to think about it being torn apart, even though it was his idea, it still churned his stomach. He nuzzled Edward and wanted to cry himself, but had to be strong for his son's sake.

Jack knew that he had to call his dad and tell him the horrible news but didn't want to do it. He wanted to believe that everything would be alright and that when his dad and Ellen get to that town that they would find both Nina and his mother alive and well. He was somehow able to fool himself and he wouldn't be convinced otherwise until he saw for himself, his mother... alive or dead.

Edward jerked his head up as he had another memory flash before him and he felt compelled to say it exactly as he remembered hearing it. Dustin backed up and looked quizzically up at Edward. Ed cleared his throat and felt the need to sit upright as he repeated the speech; "I was alone in a vast desert with dark clouds all around the sky and I held a gun in my hand. I saw myself holding out the black pistol and pulling its silver trigger... A loud thunder clap burst forth from the gun and the sky in a deafening roar but when the echo had faded... I realized there was no lightning. My tears fell like rain on the dry earth and a single white lily grew there." Edward said and nodded to himself for getting the speech right. Leaning back he said, "That's what he said."

"Who?"

"That big guy, umm Albert. He said that just before they buried me." Edward said and then had a look of shock on his face. "They buried me alive!" he gasped and shot frightened looks all around him at the strange room. His heart was racing.

"It's ok, it's ok Edward. You're safe now, Dad and I found you and brought you here, so you can heal. You're safe here, don't worry..."

Ed looked around himself and grabbed the soft covers of the warm bed he was on with both fists. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He felt safe here with these two and relaxed a little but was confused about why the other boy was calling him that name, "Edward? Why did you call me that? I'm Fifteen."

"You _were_ Fifteen, but your name is Edward. My name is Jack, Dad's name is Henry and Mom's name is Janet _. Please remember us_." Jack pleaded.

"I... I think... I do. My head hurts so bad... jus... give me a minute. I think I can work it out, I just need time." Edward said rubbing the dog's ears gently. "What's her name?"

" _His_ name is Dan the man. He was your dog. And..." Jack was about to say more but Dustin shook his head at him. "And uh, he is a great dog. You will always be safe around him."

"I feel safe. I don't remember the last time I felt safe, but I do now. Is the Center coming back to pick us up?"

Jack gave him a look and quickly answered, "No, I don't think so. Dad an I were just there the other day and they had cleaned out the place. I think they shut down for good. So you're going to live with us. Is that alright?"

Edward considered the offer and ruffled the dog's coat and smiled warmly, then looked up to Jack's eager face. "Yeah. I think that would be nice. I can kinda remember living with you before. I remember it being really fun, I just don't want to upset Albert. But... he left me there. In the black room." Ed was quiet for a moment, thinking about how close he came to a lonely forgotten death. He then felt a sense of belonging with these two at his side, he made a fist and said, "I don't want to go back to him or them. Ever." Edward would not budge on this decision. "Never again."

All the while, Dustin was thinking about the riddle that Albert had told Edward just before sealing up the garage. 'Why would he tell him that? What does it mean... a gun that fires thunder but no lightning. Lilies growing in the desert... what do lilies stand for? Rebirth? Did Albert mean his own? No. He wouldn't tell Ed that, not to just rub it in. A gun that doesn't fire... of course. It makes sense now...'

Dustin jumped down from Edward's bed and then went around to the other side of Jack's and put his paws up and tried to get his attention.

"One sec." He held a finger up to Ed and casually leaned over to talk to Dustin out of sight from his brother. "What? You're kidding!" Jack whispered excitedly and grabbed the cell phone.

"What's going on? What did that dog just say?"

"Oh him? No, he uh, can't talk 'cause he's a dog." He said plainly but didn't know whether or not to just tell Ed about Dustin.

Dustin put his paw on Jack's leg and motioned for him to explain.

"If you want to tell him go ahead, he can hear you just fine, he can probably hear you better then the rest of us combined. I gotta call Dad." He said to Dustin.

"Tell me what?" Edward said to the dog. One part of him thought it was odd to think of a dog making intelligible conversation, but remembered the wild cat in the hot dry town that had talked to him as if he was a friend. Edward smiled at the dog and hoped it would be friendly. The feline instinct in him screamed at him to distrust all dogs but this one seemed pleasant enough to be trusted.

Dustin trotted over to Edward's bed and jumped up again. He then got into a position of submission and said very calmly, "Mmy naamme iss Duusttin. II'm innsiide Daan's heaad. Hhe's finne, wwe're botth finne." He said and waited to see if Ed would remember him at all. Edward just looked bemusedly at him and pet his head.

"Ok. So you're Dustin and Dan. That's cool. I'm Fifteen and Edward. It's cool to have two names." He said amiably.

Dustin figured it would be best to let the boy remember on his own, and to leave it for now. Meanwhile, Jack was busy making waving motions with his free hand for his dad to pick up the phone already.

"Dad? Hi! It's us. Dustin just said that he remembers what the box's underneath Albert's bed were labeled. They were _Blanks_! Albert must have bought a dozen box's of blanks of all calibers for all the possible guns they would take there to the testing grounds and replaced the first 2 bullets in each of the soldiers' guns with blanks so neither Ed or Mom would be shot! Isn't that great?!" Jack elated, and nodded when listening to his dad shout for joy on the other line. Edward heard Henry over the phone and slowly worked out what they were talking about and what it all meant. Dustin grinned up at Ed and Jack, happy to be the bearer of _good_ news for once.

"Mom's alive!" Jack shouted with delight.

"So the gun that shoots thunder and no lightning means that there was a bang but no bullet?" Edward reasoned. "But what does the flower mean?"

Jack covered the phone receiver to explain to Ed, "The lily is the flower for rebirth, Albert said it as code to tell you that Janet is really alive and well."

"He told it to me as a secret? So the other guys wouldn't know what he did?"

"Yes, exactly."

"So he's a good guy?"

"I guess. Hang on," Jack said and talked some more to his dad on the other end.

"But... why did she fall down? Why didn't she get back up when they shot her?"

"I don't know... maybe Albert told her to stay down? I really don't know." Jack said cautiously, not wanting to let this thin trace of hope go. He asked Ellen the same thing, how Albert could fake Janet's death.

"But she looked dead. Her eyes didn't move..." Edward said at a loss. He was still visibly upset at remembering the horrific scene.

Dustin wondered why she wouldn't move either, then thought about how to hide the fact that someone is alive when they should look dead. He then oddly thought about Frank and asked Jack to ask Ellen something.

"She says 'what is it'." Jack relayed.

"Ii reememberr thhe namme onn thee mapp, iit waas thee neww hyypnootist, shhe mustt haave meet hiim, whhatt eexacctly diid thhey doo ttoo Frannk?"

"She says that they washed his mind, she says that she was at the door when the hypnotist was doing it and she heard a loud bang on the other side and he came out not knowing anything." Jack said and shrugged. He then asked Ellen who Frank was.

"You mean Frank from 'North to Southpaw'? Our Frank?" There was a pause. "He was there? But why..?" Another longer pause while Ellen explained. "Oh that's just ridiculous." Jack said incredulously.

"What? Who's Frank?" Edward asked.

"He's a guy that's from our old town Amystriss, we used to go to his shop all the time. She says that they thought he was you because he has a tail and kidnapped him for 3 months. They recently brainwashed him into forgetting the Center, then dropped him back off in Amystriss. She thinks the hypnotist was paid by Albert to make both of them react when they hear a gun shot. They probably tested the bang on Frank to see if he would respond to it and stay under the influence."

"Really?"

"Yeah, so when Mom heard the gunshot, it was the trigger for her to fall into a coma or something until she hears the other word to bring her back out again."

"What's the word?"

Jack asked Ellen and frowned. "She doesn't know. But we'll read the whole dictionary to Mom to find out!" Jack said happily.

"Gladly!" Edward said. He then had to lay back down and take some huge gulps of the Pangal Blaster at his side. "Just got a little lightheaded there for a minute. More and more memories are flooding back into my head and I don't remember the last time I was this happy. I didn't kill her. Mom's alive. I'm so relieved." He breathed lightly and fell asleep with Dan at his side, nuzzling and licking his face. Dustin decided to let the dog have his time with the boy.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"I can't believe it. I just can't believe it." Henry said euphorically happily.

"I know... I don't understand why I didn't make the connection before. Frank getting hypnotized by Albert's own shrink Dr. Furter. You know? He brought in Furter out of the blue to replace our normal guy a day before he hypnotized Frank. That was when we first found your boy in Amystriss. I remember because I was sent to clean out the old shrink's stuff from the room to make it comfortable for the new guy. Dr. Furter also followed us out to Site B and I think he left from there. I'm not entirely sure 'cause that's when I left too." Ellen said trying to put together the missing puzzle pieces.

"So Albert knew all along that he needed someone on the inside to help him out should the Center actually get a hold of Ed."

"Seems like, but it's so weird though... he seemed to be so intent on getting Edward back, at any cost..." Ellen said. "But I guess it does help make some sense, he must have been acting insane and pushing others into hating the Center. Humiliating them so they would want to uprise and mutiny. Playing the part of the bad guy to save the day. It's such an unusual way of accomplishing his goal though."

"When Albert's truck passed us going to the garages, I know in my heart that he saw us and recognized us. It was just a brief second but I swear I saw him smile at us as he went by and let us keep going." Henry said.

Ellen instructed Henry to take a left turn then quick right to avoid the fiasco at Site B. "I don't think the old man knew what would happen at Site B though... I don't think any of us expected that!" She said and laughed. "I bet it's all over the news, we should tell the kids to watch TV for any info on us."

"They'd probably just flip it over to the movie channels. They get distracted so easily." Henry chuckled as he navigated the new route through the rough back roads.

"We should jus let them rest, they deserve it." Ellen said and propped her feet up onto the dash and reclined her seat to allow enough room to lay down. "Just watch out for the sign that says, 'Caution: All trespassers will be shot on sight.' Go down the left road further till you reach the sign 'Radioactive Area, turn back now' and then park right outside the missile silos. Big-ass holes in the earth. Be careful not to drive into them and uhh... wake me when we get there." Ellen said and yawned.

She then covered up from the chilly desert air and fell deep asleep, leaving a very nervous Henry at the wheel.

As he drove he wondered what had changed Albert's mind. What caused him to want to save a total stranger like Janet or Frank, especially at the risk of his own safety from the others from the Center. From what Ellen was saying earlier, there was going to be a mutiny of sorts that she herself was planning to lead. But even though she wasn't there, it probably happened anyway. The letter Albert left for Nina on the house at Site B, was a sort of goodbye to his daughter, it pointed to his need for redemption. Henry made a mental note to tell Nina about the letter and worried that she would take it rather badly. He recalled his last encounter with the child assassin, and hoped that what Ellen said was true, that Nina changed for the better.

Henry thought about how it was great that both father and daughter decided on their own to live better lives. And was proud to think that his son had something to do with it. He wished he could hug Edward all the more but knew it had to wait until the whole family was whole again. 'This jeep can't get there soon enough! I want it faster and better now!' He gave it more gas to reunite with his wife just that much sooner.

"I'm coming Honey." He smiled.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After a long while, Edward woke again to find Jack flipping around the channels on the TV in their room. He watched as several different stations were all talking about contrasting wild and weird events that were going on. Jack would occasionally giggle or absurdly laugh about one thing or another and Edward noticed that he was also talking on the phone to someone.

"Hang on, he's waking up. Mornin' Ed." Jack said then he turned the TV to a network that showed a continuous loop of a tape showing a dusty funnel cloud through a telescope. "Talk to you later Dad. Love you too, bye." He hung up the phone grinning at Edward's groggy face.

"Just when I think I got a handle on shit, I regain consciousness." Ed said rubbing his eyes.

"Hey, watch this tape. It's something you'd like to see."

"Why?"

"Because it's really cool. Fact, you'll think it's amazing when you find out why." Jack chuckled. He thought it was terribly clever of him to hum a certain few lines from the song 'That's amore' by Dean Martin. Knowing full well that Ed wouldn't get the joke till probably days later. Dustin thought that the song 'Blue moon' would have been more appropriate as he watched the video clip play over the TV screen.

So Edward watched the tape as it repeated itself after a few minutes, a swirling mass of cloud seemingly sucked into the black void of space, heading towards Earth. Then it went to footage of a news conference room with 'NASA' written in big blue letters behind a bewildered man at a podium. Jack had heard it all before Ed woke up and the NASA scientists didn't have much else to say on the matter, besides the fact that it was weird and inexplicable.

"They don't know what caused that thing, but we do." Jack said sporting off a cocky grin.

"We do? What is it?"

He hummed a few more bars of the song before answering, "It's you." Jack poked Edward in the chest and then at the TV screen of the dust funnel, "That right there, is your body, traveling over 240,000 miles in just a few minutes, to get to you to save your life." He said and enjoyed every distinct and separate confused expression on his little brother's face.

Jack continued, "You don't remember yet, but you told us once that your human body was made up of gazillions of tiny particles from space. Ellen said that because we didn't use the machine from the Center to make you change human, then those particles had to come from somewhere new. They used to be passed back and forth from you and Nina but since she's already human right now, that meant that you're body needed new ones. NASA had just had a conference to say that the dust funnel, they're calling it a lunar tornado, contained material from a special asteroid that hit the moon about a thousand years ago. I guess it was chalk full of the particles that your body needed and, being the next closest source, it had no problem swirling its ass on down to Earth and finally to you." Jack explained, still smiling in a way that hinted at a taunt, as if to say, 'I dare you to understand this.'

"What?" Edward said dumbfounded.

"You're a little space monkey." Jack smirked.

Ed had a shocked look on his face, "I'm not a monkey! If anyone's a monkey it's you ape breath!" Edward laughed.

"Yeah right, which one of us has the tail hmm? Nice white fluffy-ass tail?"

"You're just jealous Captain Fat Ass!" Edward said and threw his thick hospital pillow at him. "Wait... what?" he stopped in mid tackling leap, falling over Jack in a confused awkward lump of teenager's limbs and elbows.

"You're remembering! That's great, we used to fight like this all the time!" Jack said and shoved some limbs off of himself, distracting Ed long enough to get pointed fingertips into his younger brother's sides to tickle him mercilessly. Ed dodged easily enough and put the hospital bed between them.

Edward gradually calmed down, and looked at Jack with increasing clarity. "I think... yeah... we did horse around like this... Why did I forget?"

"Well, that's what happened last time. You almost died 3 years ago and this time... you actually did die."

"I did??"

"Yeah, for about 2 minutes. Your heart stopped after they turned the MRI off and they couldn't use the charred defibrillator crash cart again to restart it. Ellen had to do CPR on you. What happened... was very scary, I'll describe it to you later... but it was worth it because you are now fully healed. Well, more or less. They couldn't really help you out when we first brought you here to the hospital and we knew that the only way to save you is to make you change shape so the magnititals could heal your inner organs as you shifted. But, it also means that you can never change shape again. Because, when we did that, we fried the mag's and now you will always be human. You also have to heal just like a normal human, no short cuts." Jack said.

"Oh... so I will stay like this? Forever?" he held up his thin hands and looked at them.

"Yeah I think so. See?" Jack said and brought over the strong magnet that they used to heal his smaller cuts and he tried to stick it to Edward's skin. It slid off and fell to the bed. Jack picked it up again and waved it all over Edward's hands and arms. "See? Nothing." He said and waved it over himself with the same results, no sticking. "You're just like the rest of us." Jack smiled.

"Wow. Wow... that's cool. Gimme that!" Edward said ecstatically and waved the magnet over every inch of himself and laughed when it only stuck on the metal bar of his hospital bed. "Oh that's great. I like being a human. But... does this mean that if we cut off my tail again, it will stay off? I remember we tried that once... but it grew back."

"Did you want to try it again? We're in a hospital this time." Jack said waving his hand around the room.

Edward pulled his long white fluffy tail around and stroked it, then said. "I'm kinda ok with it now. It's a part of who I am, I don't want to deny it. I want to accept it and everyone else will just have to accept me as I am. And if they don't, if they are too narrow minded then I feel sorry for them." Edward said and looked up at Jack. "I don't care what other people think about me or how I look." He said smiling. "I don't care what they say anymore. I'm not going to live out my life hiding from bigots. If they want to fight me, fine. I can take them all on!"

"I believe it! I'll tell the world to watch out for my little brother!" Jack laughed and tackled Edward right out of his bed and onto the ground. Dan joined in and tumbled about with the boys. Jack would pin Ed to the floor and Dan would bump him off only to be attacked by Ed right after.

"And hey, I just had a thought, remember a couple years back you wanted to dye your hair that ridiculous blond 'cause you wanted to become a surfer? Well how does white hair suit you instead?" Jack said and ushered Edward over to the mirror. "You are like your own ghost. It's weird to see you with white and light gray stripes on your head and tail. Just can't get used to it yet. Makes you look stranger then usual."

"You're pretty odd yourself, we should get your hair back to normal 'cause red does not fit." Ed stated.

"Matches your bloodshot eyes though..." Jack said. "Your face is gonna look very patriotic pretty soon, red eyes, white hair and blue bruises." he pinched Ed's cheeks to speed up the bruises. Ed obsequiously gave Jack some to exhibit as well.

They looked at themselves in the mirror, marveling at how much they had changed in just a week. Jack seemed wizened and Ed was even more scrawnier then usual and overall, a little gaunt and bony. However, they were confident that he could finally fatten up once he gets some solid food down. Ed stuck his tongue out at his reflection and checked his teeth, eyes, ears and then his few chest hairs. He noticed that he still had whiskers that turned nearly see-through instead of the bold black shade. Jack obediently yanked them out of Ed's upper lip. Ed nudged him for unnecessary roughness but chuckled as he pulled out the other whiskers over his eyebrows and jaw, letting them flit to the floor and saying goodbye to the old, and hello to a new clean shaven face. He rubbed his hand from palm to fingertip and frowned when they still produced large cat claws out of the ends. He retracted the claws again and sighed.

"Still have some sharp teeth, claws, and vertical slit eyes, but at least my ears are more rounded and not so vampire-like as before. So I think I can cut my hair a more normal way. I wonder if I can grow it out long now." Ed mused.

Jack ruffled his short spiky hair that frizzed out in every direction. "Still smells like someone threw a battery in a campfire." Jack snickered.

"I like this white, but you look silly with that red hair. Let's just cut it all off and start over." Edward said and looked around for scissors. "Hey Dustin, got any scissors over ther..." Edward stopped short and stared wide eyed at the dog panting happily on the floor.

"You're Dustin." Edward said quietly, stunned.

Jack put his arm around Edward who shrugged it off.

"You could talk. You said something earlier. You said your name was _Dustin_." Edward cautiously kneeled down in front of the dog as it switched from being the doggie Dan to the mind of the man.

Dustin cautiously looked at Ed evenly and nodded slightly.

"But... how... I..." Edward said sitting down on his side, almost wanting to back up from him.

"Hhi Eedwaard." Dustin smiled a bit but still didn't know how to act in front of the boy.

"Oh my... how did you? But you're dead... I saw your body. I..." Edward said and then immediately backed up all the way to throw up in the corner trashcan.

Jack knew what Ed had done to feel such guilt and went over and pat his back saying, "It's ok, he wanted to help you out so he told Ellen, the woman that's also on our side, to set it up for you to do that. It was their plan to save yours and Mom's life. He knew you needed help and this was the only way he thought to do it. It's not your fault that the Center did that to him. They are the ones to blame for his current umm, condition. His body was already dead so as one last gift he gave it up as a replacement for the man you were sent in to kill. So what if it backfired there, it all turned out alright in the end." Jack said trying to make Ed feel better, and handed him a towel. "You don't have to say anything, he knows you're a good person, so it's all ok."

Edward wiped his face and took a drink. He whispered to Jack, "But how is he in there? What happened to Dan?"

"After we left Dan at Maggie's house, the Center found him there and took him back with them. At first they were mad that Dustin had betrayed them so they put his mind in Dan's body and took out the voice box as punishment. They thought it was ironic to take away the communications officer the ability to communicate, least that's what Ellen said." Jack looked at Dustin for confirmation.

"Buut Daan iss ook. It took awwhile too gett ussed too eaach otther, buut wwe camme tto ann aggreemennt." Dustin said taking a hesitant step forward.

"He really is ok? Are _you_ ok? How is this even possible?" Edward said and inched closer to the dog.

"Ii doon't knnow, iit juust iss. Hoow arre youu?"

Edward cautiously said, "I'm fine. I'm ok, and I guess it's all thanks to you. Wow. It's really great to meet you again, I thought you had died." He whispered.

"Nahh, Ii'm fine, beenn traaveling witth thosse twoo. Yoou mayy nott knoow itt, but I acctually mmet yoou seeveral tiimes sinnce ourr time att thhe Cennter. I waas att thhe liibrary inn Ammystriss sshortly affter yoou moved inn. I alsso speent myy week vaacation inn downtown Ammystriss and I saww yoou boys sneeaking innto thhe theeater. Ii wass inn thhe auudience yoour firrst day of scchool annd Ii haave to sayy, I'mm so prroud of yoou, for evverything thaat youu do." Dustin said beaming up at Ed.

"It was you, you left the little old book for me at the library... it changed my life."

"Ohh yeaah, itt wass mmy favorrite growing upp. Ssorry itt wass sso beaat upp annd worn."

"The pictures were still bright and colorful, I remember looking at all of the strange characters and feeling akin to them." Edward said sheepishly.

"Hehh, yeeah. Ii miss colorrs. Ii alsso mmiss beiing taall! Sso wheen diid yoou grrow upp?"

"Him? He hasn't grown up. He's just the same little runt he always was!" Jack said and tousled Ed's spiky hair.

"Wwell, I waas too att thhat agge, theen I hit aa growwth spuurt whhen I tuurned sixtteen. Soo jusst yoou waiit runnt!" Dustin said, "Either waay, yoou're taaller then mme now so yoou're ggonna havve to hellp me ouut, like maaking uss a biig aass steeak diinner. Ii thinkk wwe earrned itt. Thiss hospital ffood succks and aall thesse guuys ever eeat is juunk ffood!"

"You got it. Man this is so weird, it's like I'm talking to another ghost." Edward said.

"Another?" Jack cocked his head.

"Yeah, when I died I met the others. It's still a little unclear, like trying to remember a dream, but, I saw all of the other kids from the Center that came before me. Fourteen didn't want me to leave. He seemed to want me to stay but said it was up to me to choose if I wanted to live or die."

Jack was quiet, wondering if Ed had been hallucinating or not, Jack doubted it on further consideration, Ed knew what was real by now. He had enough experience to be able to tell the difference. "So that's what you meant on the table. Just before you passed out, you said, 'I chose.'" Jack said, "We were wondering what the heck you were talking about. I guess now we know."

Time wandered as they talked about the afterlife and if it was the same for everyone, or if this one was tailor made for Edward. His own personal heaven.

"You know, I had a feeling then, that Mom was still alive because I didn't see her there in that meadow. Everyone else that I had known that died was there. All of the eagles, owls, rats and the other kids were all there in the garden, but I didn't see Mom. I guess I know why now." Edward smiled again, "She really is alive."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Oh crap, we're gonna die." Nina said as she heard a large truck barrel down the long gravel road to the army base.

"Come on Mrs. Johnson, we have to go!" She tried to drag the limp body over to the nearest bit of cover, but couldn't rouse the woman, so instead Nina opted to throw lightweight debris over top to hide her and kicked dirt over the fire and food scraps.

Nina grabbed a large piece of cloth and had just enough time to swish away her numerous tracks all around the dilapidated shack that she was bunking in that night.

The truck halted briefly at the front gate as one of the tired men climbed down and moved the huge powerful magnets out of range then resealed the perimeter after entering. Nina could hear the truck circle the entire town and check to make sure that the fence line was still secure, then went straight to the area where the troops were set up before. She jumped up into the partially exposed rafters and held her breath as 3 men's heavy boots hit the sandy ground.

"What the hell are they trying to pull? Where is that bitch?"

They strode around the former base the Center's scientists used and found no trace of the body they were sent to pick up. Bright flashlights lit up everywhere as they walked along the roads and looked in houses. They then went over to the alley where Dustin's body still lay and brought over a long black zippered bag down that street.

Nina could see the beams of light shoot up to the sky from their deer spotter lights as they waved around like light sabers. She could just barely hear the shuffling sounds of the men as they picked up the remains and kicked dirt over the congealed pool of blood around the area.

"That's good enough. Come on, let's just get him back."

"What do we do about the other one? She was supposed to be right here."

"I dunno, maybe coyotes ate her, fresher meat then the other one."

"Watch your mouth, Dustin was a friend of mine."

"Sorry. Any idea who drug him out here?"

"I don't know, it seems you don't buy that story either that the brat killed him. It is suspicious that Dustin just happened to be here while we were testing the boy. But if Fifteen didn't kill him, who did?"

"Hey, do you notice something else that's odd? This place, it's clean, there's no tracks anywhere except for ours right now."

"You know there is wind out here, it's been a day and a half at least."

"Yeah I guess... you think we can ship a dummy back to the Johnson family instead of the real thing?"

"Albert paid us a lot of money to bring back Mrs. Johnson's body as is, he's not gonna be happy with a replacement."

"What does he care? She's dead as a doornail. I saw her gunned down myself."

"So where's the body?"

"Is there a chance that they missed? Did it just ricochet off of her head and make her pass out?"

"If so then she's wandering around in the devil's playground and if she's not dead yet, then she will be. Come on, let's just get out of here. I was only paid to bring back Dustin's body. Not that lady. That was you guys' job."

"Well I'm not leaving until I find her!"

"I'm not even gonna bother, I'll wait for ya in the truck."

Nina watched the boots of two of the men head off to the truck that reeked of garbage. She was sad that they were discarding Dustin's body in the back as if he were garbage as well. The last one wandered around the place and halfheartedly searched the houses in the area. Nina resisted the incredible urge to knock him out when he peered into the house she was in. If he had looked up, he would have seen her. Nina decided to take him out if he did, but thankfully he only spat on the debris covering the woman and strode back to the truck. Cursing everything he could think of for the missing body, and the lost bonus paycheck.

Nina remained in the house for a few more minutes as they once again circled the town, slower this time, scanning the other houses with the spotter lights. She debated whether or not to go and knock them all out and take their truck. She paced back and forth next to the woman and cursed her indecisiveness as she heard them drive back down the long gravel road.

"If I had orders this would have been cake. I think I need to start giving myself orders from here on out. Gotta think for myself. I can do that. I have to do it." Nina stopped pacing and uncovered Mrs. Johnson and made sure she was still breathing and set up the few edible rations close by in case she decided to wake up. Then uncovered the scraps from the vulture the night before and grimaced at the dirt seasoning all over it. She straightened out the t-shirt that Ellen had loaned her and grew to like the gun and lipstick-bullet design. The shoes didn't fit right so she just went barefoot. The plaid pants needed to go, though, soon as she finds a new pair to replace them. She decided that when she eventually starts buying her own clothes, that nothing will be plaid.

Nina sighed and left to inspect the perimeter again. Looking for a gap in its defenses. She cursed its ingenious design as she accidentally ran a bit too close to one of the poles. The magnet suddenly shot out from its resting place. She hit the dirt and dug in all of her claws into the sandy dirt and could feel the incredible pull on her body that it was generating. She dug into the ground and was somehow able to scramble away and get clear of the magnet as it hovered in the air at the end of its 7 foot cable tether, at the base of the aluminum pole. It slowly fell to the ground the further away she got from it.

She knew she would never have been able to get the magnet off of herself without help and still had a sickening feeling in her stomach. She had a very real idea of the immense pain it would cause to be forcibly transformed by these things. In a constant battle between the magnetic forces and the billions of magnititals spread out in her body as they kept trying to revert back to her original form.

She had a vivid and horrifying idea of what it would feel like to be drawn and quartered by horses from the middle ages. Albert had a few books on mid-evil practices, and even though she found it fascinating, she still thought it was way too barbaric for her tastes. Finding herself thinking, 'I hope that I get old before I die. Not here and now.'

Nina paced back and forth and could still feel the pull on her whole body as she passed each pole. She went back into the town and picked up some metal pieces of different sizes and returned to the poles. She threw some small chunks of metal at the nearest pole and they instantly stuck to the magnets on top. It toppled to the ground and laid there.

She then threw a long metal rebar through the 6 foot gap between 2 poles and both of the magnets on top shot out and stuck to the rebar. Elated, she ran back and retrieved another rebar and went to the next 2 undisturbed poles and threw it in that 6 foot gap and those other 2 magnets attached to that rebar. She practically danced for joy as there was now a very safe, 12 foot clearance between the magnets that were already stuck to the rebars. She threw some more metal scraps through ahead of her, just in case, and they sailed and tumbled on by, undisturbed.

Nina laughed out loud and ran to her shack again.

"Come on! Wake up already!" She said and jostled the woman again. "Dammit, I wish I knew what the wake up call was... make this so much easier!" She said and then screamed as loud as she could, right in Janet's ear with still no response.

"Great, I finally figure out a way to get out of here and she's still sleeping. Mrs. Johnson's gotta wake up sometime. I can't get her to drink any more wine. She just kept letting it spill out the side of her mouth." She said and took a small sip from the bottle, sealing it tightly.

She then left to go find some possible game from the nearby dead woods just outside of the perimeter where she figured Teedas had left his motorcycle. She spat at the tire marks carved in the dirt from his peeling out and leaving them there to starve.

Luckily she managed to find a jackrabbit and was just fast enough in her human form to chase it down and kill it. On the way back she heard something on the gravel road, approaching fast.

"Oh Shit! No!" She screamed, dropping the rabbit and raced back into the town. Cursing herself for forgetting where the gap was in the perimeter line, she ran one way then the other for a few minutes as the vehicle's motor was heard inside the town.

She saw its black roof from over the fence and finally found the opening and raced straight to the vehicle. She was on top of the roof in a flash as it screeched to a halt. She immediately swung her foot down and through the driver's side window and just barely missed the head of the man driving.

"Holy crap!" He said as he rolled up his window as fast as he could once the leg was removed.

"Wait! Nina stop!" The passenger shouted.

Nina leaped down to the hood and glared at the people inside. " _Get out of the car or I'll kill you!_ " She threatened and crouched down to attack right through the windshield if necessary.

Henry put up his hands and Ellen hobbled out of the passenger side.

"Nina! It's me, we came back to get you. Are you alright?" Ellen said nervously.

"What? Who's that?" She said and jabbed a finger at Henry.

He got out of his side and still had his hands up. "It's me, we uhh met before. I'm Ed's dad, Henry."

"Oh... yeah... you." She eyed him warily and checked to see if he had the same huge wrench nearby. Occasionally she jumped a bit when he made a wide gesture. It was in her nature not to trust anyone. Especially if they had managed to land any blows on her, self defense or no, they couldn't be trusted. She softened a little, he held no weapon and seemed innocuous enough now. "Where is the other one?" She asked, trying not to sound too hopeful, looking at the backseat.

"Jack is with Ed at the hospital." Henry said.

"You have Edward?! How? I thought they were going to kill him for sure!" She said and backed up off of the hood to speak more comfortably with them.

Henry lowered his hands, embarrassed, and briefly explained what happened on their side. He then said nervously, "Have you seen my wife? Janet? Is she uh... here?"

"Yeah, I can take you to her, she's not very well. I can't get her to eat or drink anything." Nina said and jogged down the main street towards the shack, Henry got back into the jeep and had to drive Ellen there due to the distance being too far for her bum leg.

He parked, left it running as he ran to the body of his long lost love. "Janet! Janet can you hear me? Wake up baby." He said cradling her in his arms.

"Need help getting her into the jeep?" Ellen asked as she limped over to the two.

"No, I got it..." He said with tears of joy in his eyes. _"She's alive, thank God, she's alive."_

Ellen held the door open and Janet was placed gently in the now reclined passenger seat. Ellen took the water bottle and slowly drizzled some into her mouth but as Nina had said, she wouldn't drink.

"I thought she might be... she's in a coma. And no doubt has advanced dehydration, but it's treatable. How long was she like this Nina?"

"Almost 2 days. I found food and some old wine but I couldn't get her to eat or drink anything. There's a dead rabbit in the woods over there if you're hungry though." She offered it like it was a Sunday dinner.

Ellen laughed a bit and slapped Nina jovially on the back. She knew that this should be taken as a great and generous gift and told Nina to bring it on over. Ellen sat in the seat behind Janet so she could keep a watch over her as Nina settled in behind Henry.

"No hard feelings right?" Henry said looking at her through the rear view mirror.

"Yeah... you're alright. Thanks for the lift. Is this your car?" Nina said with a hint of distaste as she went about dusting off dog fur from the seat.

"No, it's Dustin's. He's with us too back at the hospital. We should get back there in a hurry because NASA might figure out where the lunar tornado hit and they'll find Edward there."

Nina stared blankly at Henry "Is that a joke? It's a bad one, no punch line." looking to Ellen for an explanation.

Ellen just shrugged and smiled, "Long story."

As the jeep left the abandoned army base, Nina could see the 2 poles at the entrance completely uprooted and thrown 20 feet away in opposite directions. Henry said, "So you could leave the town and not have to worry about those things."

"Thanks." She said gratefully and stowed away the jackrabbit in the cooler behind her.

"Oh, we should put this location on the GPS thinger so we can come back for Dustin's body, give it a proper burial." Henry said as they passed by the numerous warning signs.

"No, don't bother, the guys came and picked it up just a half hour ago. They were also looking for her but I hid us. I didn't want them to find out she was still alive. Apparently Daddy wanted to bring her back to you guys. One of them said that Daddy was paying him a lot of money to do it so it wasn't an order from the council."

Henry gave a look at Ellen and they both smiled slightly. Then Ellen said, "I always knew he was a softie. Putting on a show to hide his motives. Best double agent of them all I'd say."

"What do you mean?" Nina asked.

For the ride back, Henry and Ellen told Nina about all that they had deduced and what events took place. Nina took it all in and had tears in her eyes when they told her about the note that Albert had left for her at the Victorian house.

"He knew I ran away... Daddy." She said between sobs. "I love you too.

 

 

 


	28. Convergence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "If you come back for any of us, if I so much as sense any of you bastards, I will personally hunt you down and end this for good. Is that understood." He said without blinking or showing any sign of a bluff because he truly was serious in his threat.

Chapter 28 Convergence

 

 

 

"Ed! Get back in here! Someone will see you!"

Edward walked along the roof on his hands and feet, holding a digital alarm clock in his mouth with its cord tripping him up here and there. He reached the corner of the very tall building and sat down. He crossed his legs Indian style, pulled out the clock's cord as if it were a pin from a grenade, and using up a considerable amount of energy, he threw the alarm clock onto the neighbor's roof, then justifiedly fingered it.

"I wasn't done sleeping yet." He muttered angrily and laid down on the roof, sliding down a little on the decline. Minutely small rocks were dislodged from the shingles and tumbled down the pitch of the roof and sailed through the air to the parking lot far far below.

"Stay right there! Don't move, Ed!" Jack said frantically as he inched his way out of the window and struggled to reach the eaves while still holding onto the window frame. "Oh God, Oh God, don't look down. How does he do this crap? All the time... Makes it look so easy to climb onto roofs." Jack grumbled to keep his mind off of the dizzying heights below. He swung his thin leg up onto the black roof shingles. Down below, it was business as usual, and Jack hoped that the tiny doctors wouldn't take that occasional glance upwards to see his half naked brother, as well as his own hospital gowned butt, up top for everyone to see.

"Stupid Ed... why the roof? Why not throw the clock at ground level? No, not my crazy ass little brother. Had to climb up 6 more stories to the very tippy-top of the fricken hospital, like some kind of Kitty Kong. Why can't he be scared of heights like everybody else?! Sane people are scared of heights!"

Jack leaned into the pitch of the roof and cautiously made his way across the slanted unstable surface to the boy. "Ed, soon as I get over there, I'm throwing you off!"

"Another 10 minutes. I swear I'll get up then." Edward said drowsily as he turned around and waved a limp hand at Jack then suddenly punched the shingles. "Those doctors in there that chopped off my hands, feet and tail can suck it! I'm not doing any more tests till I've had some sleep!" Edward shouted angrily over his shoulder. He then switched gears and made a odd sound like a cooing bird and said, "Fourteen said I could stay there as long as I want. Don't wake me from my garden... another 10 minutes Mom..." He mumbled then snored and slipped a bit further down the roof to the eaves, unwittingly saving himself by catching a toe on the metal of the outer eaves trough, halting his progression downwards.

Jack gawked at him and waited a full 20 seconds, then announced as motherly as possible, "Ok Ed, times up, get ready for school." Another shingle below him was knocked loose by his foot and sailed to the pavement, making a barely audible crashing sound. Jack held his breath and didn't dare to look down.

"Ok... I'm coming..." Edward said obediently and trotted over to Jack, bumped his head into the obstruction, "'scuse me." and leaped clear over Jack and shuffled over to the window. He swung back inside with ease.

"Stupid pain meds. But it's just like him to suddenly decide to become a drug fiend. Not enough going on as it is." Jack chuckled and promptly remembered that it was he and Henry that gave Ed cocaine earlier that day. "Ok, I guess it's not just the pain meds..." Jack made his way back to the window, following his stoned brother. He climbed back inside and locked the window and saw Edward snoring noisily on the floor. He picked him up, threw him over his shoulder and tried to stay out of sight as they made their way back downstairs to their room.

Dustin met them halfway and looked frantically up at them.

"Hmm? Don't worry, he's fine, we're going back."

"Noo, donn't. Theere's Ccenter peopple heere! Baack upp, bacck upp!" They hid themselves in a room in the maternity ward.

"Oh wow! If Ed hadn't led me up here they would have had us trapped down there! He also might have just showed us a way to escape this building without going downstairs, though I don't want to try it before we've tried everything else first... it's a freakin long way down."

Ed rubbed his eyes and said ouch a few times. Jack cautiously lifted up one of his eyelids to see how they were healing, and sighed when Edward's eyes were still very bloodshot and dry. He glanced around the room to see if there was anything he could use to ease the sting a little and found a glass of water.

"Here Ed, stick your finger in this water and rub your eyes again, should help a bit."

"I'm fine, you're the one that's completely red." He squinted and yawned.

"Lil dork." Jack said and wetted a cotton swab and waited till Ed settled back down to wipe his brother's closed eyelids, hoping it would seep in and help. "I guess he really can't heal as fast as before. This will take some getting used to." He said to Dustin.

Dustin just shrugged back and kept his nose to the door. "Whhy arre theyy heere?" He pondered. A short time passed as they waited for something to happen.

"Yeah, I still have no idea why they are here. Maybe Ed knows. Ed? You awake?" Jack jostled him a bit and roused him from his slumber.

"Mmm? What?"

"Why are the Center guys here? I thought they were done with you. Do you know what's going on?"

"Huh? Oh yeah... are they wearing Hawaiian shirts?" Edward said still half asleep.

Jack looked to Dustin for a possible answer. Dustin cocked his head and almost laughed at Ed's randomness. "Duunno. Lemmee chheck. Youu two sttay heere." Dustin said and Jack opened the door just wide enough for him to sneak out of the room. Stalking down the hallways, he inched his way past the nurses station on that floor, right underneath the overhanging counter. Dustin found someone going in his direction and pretended to be their dog by following obediently behind just long enough until he was out of sight, then went downstairs and sniffed out his former work colleagues.

Sure enough, nearly all of them were wearing gaudy Hawaiian shirts and were looking rather lost and lonely, all huddled together. Every person that past by the group they all threw questions at, mainly, why they were there and where they lived. They began creating quite a disturbance and eventually were rounded up and placed in a conference room down the hall. Dustin noticed the same doctor that helped them out earlier and ran over to get his attention.

"Why are you out? We're not supposed to have dogs loose in a hospital, you better get back to the room." Pepper said and ushered him down the correct hall.

"Doon't leet themm remmember annythinng." He whispered as loud as possible.

"What? Why not? Do you know them?"

Dustin nodded and said, "Iit's betterr iff theyy donn't remmember thhat plaace."

"So you were all from the same place?"

Dustin grudgingly nodded again and said, "Baad guyys... buut noot anymorre. Mosstly harrmless." and smiled.

The doctor had to believe the dog, and spread the word to his trusted co-workers to send the couple dozen amnesiac's to a home where they will be looked after. He also gave his friends the impression that the group should be taken to some place where there are fences and guards for their own protection. Calls were made and work had to be done to find such a place in short notice.

The doctor turned back around and grinned as Dustin push the round metal panel for the automatic door opener and made his way back down the hallway.

"The things I've seen today." He said and went to grab some more coffee. "Longest shift ever." Thankfully there was a full pot on the burner because he was going to go into overtime for the family's sake. Finding the money in his white coat guilted him into staying longer until everything was resolved.

At the front entryway to the hospital, there were a few other 'tourists' coming in that, unlike the rest, seemed to know what was going on. Or at least a hint of it, because they were asking where their bosses were and where they were supposed to meet up after this field training exercise.

The doctor sighed and went to go ask the dog what to do about those guys.

"What's going on exactly?" Jack asked.

"A few of your old friends apparently remember something about that place you've escaped from."

Jack, Ed, and Dustin went into a huddle and whispered so the doctor wouldn't have to testify later on the matter.

"I'll take care of it." Edward said and looked around for something. "This dressing gown is nice and all but do you have some, like,... pants I can borrow?"

A few minutes later, after a 'costume change' in their room, Ed, Jack and Dustin strolled down to the waiting room and called the few in question over to be 'evaluated' on their performance. Acting the roles of the Center's younger field agents.

Now, in a different room well beyond prying eyes and ears, the door was shut tightly behind by them and they stood looking expectantly at each other. Jack instantly pulled out his revolver and told the men to hit the ground.

"Jack? What are you doing? Where the hell did you get that gun?!" Ed shouted as he stood next to his pissed off brother.

"Never mind that. These guys are the murderers right?" Jack aimed the gun at the men's chests as they knelt on the floor, uneasily backing up to the wall. Going slowly from one to the other, Jack lined up the barrel's sights, cocked back the hammer and held his breath. His heart was racing audibly and sweat started to bead on his face. Ed had never seen Jack so angry and vengeful.

Edward stood gaping at his brother for a long moment. He looked at the frightened men and then back at Jack, he struggled with his inner demons to let Jack dispose of this human garbage. Edward thought hard on what the right thing for him to do and almost reluctantly inched his way in front of his taller brother. "Jack, I can't let you hurt them. It's over. The Center is never coming back."

Dustin was exceedingly agitated but he was starting to side with Jack on this one. Even though he had worked with these men, they were not his allies by any means.

With a level voice Jack retorted, "Ed shut up. They tried to murder you. They shot Mom. Kidnapped Dan and Frank. Practically murdered Dustin and you want me to let them go?" He gripped the pistol harder and a few tears were boiling to the surface because he also thought about all of those poor child chimeras that had only numbers for names, their bones found burned and dumped alongside Edward in the godforsaken desert. No justice had been served for their deaths. For all he knew, these three men here were responsible. He held out the gun further. It rattled in his quivering hands.

Edward placed his hand gingerly on top of the barrel of the revolver, "It's not right what they did, no one is saying it is. But they won't come after us anymore."

Edward stared hard into his brother's eyes and nodded for Jack to lower the gun. Mouthing the words, 'It's ok' to him. Jack dropped the gun to his side, but kept his finger on the trigger, glaring at the men. Ed faced the three terrified men kneeling on the floor. "The Center that you used to work for is no more. They disbanded. They are never going to come back. Understand?" Edward said calmly.

The three listened intently, and slowly said they did understand a little.

"The Center no longer controls you, me or anyone else. You should know that they tried to dump you all like they did me, you don't owe them anything. You have the chance now to leave and live your life. You are free, and so am I." the last part said to each man and he knelt down in front of them. He then stared into each one's face with his burning red eyes, and slipped into a cold calculative tone of voice.

"If you come back for any of us, if I so much as _sense_ any of you _bastards_ , I will personally hunt you down and end this for good. Is _that_ understood." He said without blinking or showing any sign of a bluff because he truly was serious in his threat.

The men nodded obediently and backed further away from him.

"Good. And since I don't want to smell you wretched filth again, you will go along with the other 'blank slates'. If any of them remember anything, you will tell them what I have told you. Or _I swear_ on my 14 brother's and sister's graves, that Hell will have a special place for _all_ of your mangled souls." He growled low through clenched teeth and stood back up. His fists were so tight that blood was dripping from his palms. "Now get out of my sight."

They all slowly stood up and started to move to the door, still watching Jack's gun and Edward's eyes.

"I SAID NOW!" He shouted and they bolted for the door and did as they were told. After only a few minutes, Dustin and Ed could hear the front doors being swung open as nearly 30 people left simultaneously. There was a deafening silence in the room as Edward collapsed to the ground and held his hands to his face. The others cautiously moved closer and sat next to him on the floor.

Edward shivered and breathed heavily for a few minutes as the dog leaned over onto him and Jack flipped the gun's safety latch back on. He then put the gun behind his back again and hooked it to his belt.

"It's over. I can't believe it's over." Edward whispered, relieved.

Jack put his arm around Edward's shoulder and couldn't help but shed a few tears himself. "Yeah. It's over. You did good." He said then got up and went to a storage cabinet in the room, found some supplies and pulled off a few strips of white gauze. Going back over to Ed, he held each of his hands gently, wiped off the blood and re-wrapped Ed's palms. Ed was almost in a trance, staring at the door.

"Gotta trim those things... " Jack said and finished wiping away the red smears on Ed's hands and face, "Don't go spending all that blood I just gave ya."

Ed's eyes came to focus on Jack's face. "You...?"

"Yeah, but I didn't do it for you, I did it for the free cookies." He grinned and playfully nudged Edward over. "Ok, come on Sparky, let's get you back to the room. Dad and Ellen should be getting here within the hour with Mom and Nina." Jack said to take Ed's mind off of worrying about the uncertain future, "We should set the beds up for them."

"Nina, that's right. I forgot she was with Mom out there. I hope they're alright because it's been a few days I think." Edward said and hobbled back down to the room. He was thankful that his body didn't expose how ill equipped he would have been to defend himself. He had just enough strength in him to put on a good front until only a few seconds after the men left, but now was the most unstable he had ever been. Jack carried him the rest of the way, once in the room, he threw Ed at the soft couch.

"They should be arriving soon, you had enough time in the motorized bed. It's Mom's turn next." Jack said smirking as he took the other hospital bed. The room remained quiet but their minds were too active to rest. They were thinking about what was going to happen next. Eventually the ticking clock and the breeze outside calmed their nerves and they laid peacefully for a long time. The Center's men did not return, and no negative news reached their ears. A stray cloud drifted over the hospital and cooled the room for a moment.

"Remember back in Amystriss? When we were leaving the house and headed to Dad's work?" Edward said looking over to Jack.

"Yeah. Seems like a million years ago." Jack said, watching the huge cloud outside of the window.

"I kept saying that nature was helping us out, or that something was helping us along the way. Remember that?" Ed said playing with the dog's ears as Dan wagged his tail happily.

"Yeah, I recall you saying something like that."

"I think it was more then that, like, something more powerful then nature. Stronger then human will. Something far greater." Ed looked outside.

Jack thought about it and smiled. "I think you're right." He said and also looked out of the window at the big billowing clouds. The air out of the window cooled dramatically and they laughed lightheartedly as rain suddenly fell from the sky and watered the parched desert.

"There's definitely someone looking out for all of us down here. Don't forget to give thanks." Jack said breathing in the cool air. "I know I'm thankful. Just think, if even one thing happened a different way, somebody might have died. It all had to happen one way for everyone to make it through this disaster." Jack then noticed Dustin and added, "course, we all have our wounds that need to heal... I'm sorry you're stuck like that Dustin. But... as you said earlier, it's better then being dead."

Dustin nodded and said, "It'ss nott your faullt. Iit couldd alwaays be woorse. Daan is aa good dogg at leasst, understanding, kinnd, and Ii likke himm. I diddn't haave mucch of a liffe beefore Ii mett youu guyss. Thankks foor letting mee tagg allong."

"Anything..., Dustin." Jack said, refraining from calling him a mutt. It was still obvious that Ed was uneasy around Dustin, he didn't know how to act around his 'original'. It was almost funny, Jack had only spent a few days with Dustin and already knew him better then Ed did, even though Ed was Dustin's clone. Jack chalked it up to them being so similar, almost seeing Dustin as an older brother because Ed is his younger brother. But that might change, as all things do, because who knows what will happen when the family gets reunited. They took some time to eat, rest, and talk.

A gurney was suddenly wheeled in with Janet lying unconscious on it. Ellen was busy getting an IV drip ready while their own nurse and doctor were buzzed back into the room. Ed and Jack had found a spot where they wouldn't be in the way, to watch the others work, praying that their mom would wake up.

"Ok, I think she'll be fine. We will keep her on the IV for awhile until she has her vitals back to normal." Ellen said and found a vein in her arm to put the needle.

The other nurse and doctor were checking her pulse and eyes and looked to Ellen for answers.

Ellen said, "She's in a fake coma. I mean, she's not faking it, it's fake as in, well, induced. She will snap out of it when we figure out what the trigger word or sound is, but for now, we should let her sleep until she is better." She made sure that the IV drip wasn't too fast and noticed the boys. She patted Ed's back, and pointed to the other hospital bed for him to get back into it. She then took Jack aside for a moment to whisper, "Ok, now Nina is in the jeep. She didn't want to come in because she said she smelled our Center's men here. What happened?"

"They were here, but they all were brainwashed or something because most of them forgot where they had been. Edward talked to the three that had some idea of where they were, and basically told them he would kill them all if they didn't leave us alone." Jack said. "They seemed to buy it. They all left here in a hurry so I think it's safe for her to come in."

"Nina said she felt safer out there. She also wanted to make sure no one stole the jeep. It's just her way." Ellen said and then added. "She's still probably hungry and thirsty so you should bring her something out there." She laughed suddenly and added, "Just make your intentions well known before you get too close. We parked out back next to the tall convenience store."

Jack chuckled a bit as he recalled the roof of that same store now having an alarm clock smack dab in the middle of it. He decided to tell the others about Ed's 'trip' later. Jack lingered around the room for a while, watching his mom sleep until he was convinced that she would be alright in their care. He found some pop and went to the cafeteria to buy some food then went out back. Locating the jeep he calling out, "I'm Jack! Coming on over... please don't kick my ass again!" He laughed as he got closer to the door. He held up the take out bag of food.

"I won't kick your ass, so long as you appease me, lowly human." She gave a sly grin, noticing the bag of snacks and opened the door for him.

He dumped out the take out bag, showering her seat with tubes of chips and bags of snacks and opened up one. "Hi, umm, thanks for taking care of Mom out there in the desert. We really appreciate it." he said shyly. Her eyes had a hint of desire, and he assumed it was for food. "As payment... I have for you these. They are the best, ever try 'em before?" He asked as he popped a couple chips into his mouth.

"No... what the hell are they?" She eyed it suspiciously and thought that food in a plastic bag was a pretty bad 'thank you' gift for saving a life, it wasn't personal enough. But she forgave him, what else could he do for her in such short notice?

"What? You never had Pingols before? Everyone's had Pingols... it's basically umm, thin potato slices that were fried in hot oil and then seasoned with cheddar and powdered heaven." He said and made yummy sounds as he savored them. "Just try 'em, I guarantee you'll love it. They didn't have the barbeque ones but these are also very delicious."

She looked suspiciously at the snack and ate one corner of one chip. "Mm. That is kinda good." And took a full bite. "Yeah... it's pretty good." They finished off the chip tube and opened another hermetically sealed treat. Some other snacks had to be explained and dissected to slate her curiosity for what passes for food in this outside world.

"These are delicious. Oh crap, I didn't get you anything..." she said a bit worried. "You can have the jackrabbits' legs I caught. It's back there in the cooler." She smiled a little at the good trade.

Though Jack was a little perturbed by the offer of some poor rabbit who shared his name, he knew it was probably her way of saying thanks. "I don't know how to cook so I'll let Dad take care of that. I've never had rabbit before." He said and was happy to see her so pleased. It was such a stark contrast from her trying to literally rip his head off the first time they had met 4 days ago.

Back in the room, Ed wanted to go with his brother but he couldn't stand up for long and wanted more to stay with Janet. But besides that, he was strictly ordered to stay on the other hospital bed and recuperate while the others took care of the rest. The doctor had to leave because his wife kept calling and asking why he was working so late, and the nurse also had her own children to tend to. A few extra beds were wheeled in and set up on the other side of the room. They all wanted to be in the same place until they figured out what to do and where to go from there.

Henry took Ellen aside to speak privately, "I know that you don't have a truck anymore. My wife's car is still in the impound lot in Amystriss, I think. It might have been moved to Constantinople but it should still run. Once we get back to Amystriss, you can have either my truck or Dustin's jeep. He can't drive it anymore, and said it was ok. I'll bring Janet's car back here for her."

"Thank you, it shouldn't be any problem to get her car back, my ex-husband is on the town council for Amystriss. I can also ask him to round up anything that you forgot there, or are you intending on going back to Amystriss?"

"I don't know. Our entire house there was imploded, destroyed. The safe house was set on fire too... my fault on that one. Heh, not only that, but I think I'm also wanted for kidnapping my whole family." Henry chuckled at the numerous problems that still await them. "I think we might stay at Dustin's in the mean time. He has invited us to live there as long as we want. We don't really have a lot of options. Personally I would like to be as far away from this whole mess as possible."

"I don't blame you. I think I'm going to be packing up my things and moving back to Amystriss so I can be closer to my daughter again." Ellen said and smiled.

"Oh yeah, Jen. You know," Henry sidled up next to her to whisper even quieter so even Ed couldn't hear, "My boy Ed has had a euphoric crush on her for years."

She laughed lightly and said, "I know. She writes to me about him all the time."

"Tell her thanks for all the help that she has given us, she has taken really good care of my boys and shown them what true friendship is about. We will have to meet up again, we just have to wait until things settle." He said as they went over to make up some of the single beds to sleep through the day in.

Nina and Jack slunk back into the room unnoticed, and made up their own beds as well. Nina fell asleep almost immediately, but Jack just hunkered down in a cot next to Edward's bed. "Hey Ed... you asleep?"

"Mmm? I was... What's the point in throwing away the alarm clock if you're just gonna wake me up every 10 minutes?" He mumbled and turned over to face him. "What is it?"

"Think I have a chance with Nina?"

"Wha? How do you mean? Like dating?" Edward asked.

"Well, you know... she's interesting."

"She's also tough as nails. If you break her heart, I can't stop her Bro." He said and glanced over to Nina's cot. "Trust me. Not even kidding 'bout that. She'll kill ya."

"Oh, she's alright. Just got to talk with her a little." Jack shrugged and glanced at Nina sleeping peacefully, wondering if she would notice if his cot got closer to her's in the middle of the night.

"Yeah... I did talk with her. Besides you getting mauled, you don't want to date her, by next year you'll be dating someone older then you. You do realize that, right?" Edward said raising an eyebrow.

"Sure... I guess. But age never mattered to me before. I don't treat you like a toddler now do I? So what if she grows up fast. Women are more mature anyway." Jack said gazing at the young lady. "I like her is all."

"Do whatever you think is right. I never could tell you any different. You're just too stubborn." Edward said and took a mocking 'serious tone'. "Don't come crying to me when she's ripped your legs off for being 'too tall'."

"I won't, I could prolly take her on any day," he said quasi-confidently "or night." giving a sly wink.

"Shut up, pervert. She's only 13. Just hold off till next spring, then she'll be as old as you at 16. But she still won't be as old as me. Never will." Edward said and smiled. "I guess you guys will be askin' me for stuff because I'll look like I'm 18 next year at this time... I'm the only one in the world that will be perpetually older then her for the rest of our lives. Weird how that works."

"Never really thought about asking my younger brother for an escort into rated R movies! Man that's something to think about. Next year you'll be old enough for college, military, buy a house, get married. All that and you've only been born 6 years prior!"

"Yeah but I like being your little brother. Havin' you take care of my ass all the time." Edward said punching Jack's shoulder, then looked away thoughtfully, "Kind of depressing when you really get down and think about it though. You an I have only a few months to be the same age..." he said solemnly.

"We wouldn't even have had that if you were gone. But maybe since you both are going to be human all the time now, you'll grow up slower... you know, cats,... don't live that long, compared to people."

"Yeah, I know. But you can say that about anyone. You never know when an accident may happen, or illness hits, or what have you. I may outlast you all, so don't go feeling bad for me just because I'm getting old. Just promise that you don't waste time on regrets. Live for now, 'cause it's all anyone has." He gave a surprised laugh, "Damn I must be getting old, I'm starting to sound like some grizzly codger thinking about the golden years." Ed said then gazed over to Nina sleeping in the cot. "Don't let her aging bother you, it doesn't bother me."

"It doesn't bother me either," Jack said and finally got the hint. "We'll see which one of us she chooses."

"What? I don't want her."

"Sure. Just get to sleep already, Grandpa."

" _You_ woke _me_ up!" Edward barked.

"All you kids go to sleep." Henry muttered as the room laughed then quieted down.

"Whippersnapper." Ed whispered.

"Geezer." Jack coughed and dodged a shoe flung from Henry's direction.

 

The next 2 days came and went with no fanfare or disaster at all, the family was actually getting a little antsy not having to run for their lives in such a long time. All of them were still only sleeping a few hours at a time because they got used to the lack of a regular full night's sleep.

Jack and Edward took Dustin shopping and bought some new clothes for all of them because the 'lost and found' bin at the hospital was getting pretty sparse. Dustin didn't understand why he had to go, looking at his fur coat and thinking, 'nothings gonna change my clothes.' But still went along with them for something to do. Jack bought Edward a new small laptop for writing, and Ed bought Jack some nice 'Sexxy' cologne and a gaudy tie from a store called 'Mr. Me'. Dustin told them to pick out a new watch for their father to replace the broken one that Henry was wearing. Dustin wanted to know what was so special about a broken wrist watch.

"Oh... he kept it?" Edward said toting the bags on his back.

"Yeah, he started wearing it Saturday while we were looking for you. Helped remind him of happier times." Jack said.

"What? I was the jerk that broke his favorite watch in the first place! I even hid it to boot!"

"Yeah, but Dad and I know why you did it. The battery wore out and you opened it up, wanting to fix it, you just didn't know that they were very sensitive machines. Dad says he was happy to find out that you tried to fix it for him. He says he knew you hid it and didn't want to upset you by bringing it up." Jack said taking one of the heavier bags from Ed's back and gestured towards the jewelry shop in the mall. "You used to be as sensitive as that watch! So this time make it a strong durable pocket watch because, like it, you'll always be hanging around." He pushed him towards the counter with a free elbow.

"Jeez, Dude... bad pun." Edward said scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "Hope we have enough cash left over for it after the clothes, computer and junk."

Their father warned them not to go nuts with the rather large allowance, but by the end of the trip they had only change left in their pockets.

Meanwhile, Henry had purchased a rather large and all-encompassing dictionary and was reading aloud and reciting every word from it to the slumbering Janet. Sometimes he would chat with Nina and console her about leaving the Center. Helping her decide what was best for her, making sure she knows that she is welcomed into the family with open arms. But basically, she just wanted someone to tell her what to do. She felt very lost without orders and rules, and was gradually learning how to just sit down and relax for awhile. She was taught by Jack how to watch TV and became enthralled with the Discovering channel and History station. On several occasions they caught news reports that in some way involved them, and each time they would chide each other about it.

The story that got the most elated celebration was the minor 2 minute sum up blurb about a large mysterious spherical crater found in the middle of a nearby forest with an old dirt road leading up to it. Apparently there was no explosion and no big fireball to help explain the origins of the fresh enormous hole in the ground, roughly a half mile in diameter. Experts would say that they have no idea where all of the dirt and rocks went to, but there was a 30 foot deep pile of gray ash at the very bottom of the tremendous hole, and nothing more. Though the family didn’t know it at the time, they would no doubt be thrilled even further to hear that the former Center will be used as a Eco-friendly waste dump.

Later, Ed couldn't help but do a little crazy happy dance in the lobby of the hospital. The Center was not only disbanded, but utterly destroyed.

"So what kinda meds are you on again?" Jack said referring to Ed's random dance moves that almost knocked over an old man.

"Nope! It's what kinda meds I'm off!" Ed said as he kept on dancing without a care in the world. Limbs flailed about with reckless abandon.

"Look! It's a big distracting thing!" Jack said pointing to the entryway doors while diving his hand in a jar.

"I don't see any..." Ed looked over his shoulder at Jack stealing some lollypops.

"It's still there! It's bigger and even more distracting!" He laughed and ran back up to their room. One of the things Ed lost was his ability to keep a low profile... and Jack had mislaid the mental faculty to care about that fact any longer. Whatsoever. Dustin found them celebrating the Center's demise in the snack room, but there is a time and place for that. He ordered, "Edd ggo layy downn" while pointing to their hallway. Jack picked up the dog's forepaws and waltzed with him back to their room.

Ellen returned on the 3rd day, walking with a crutch, and announced that she had packed up her things from her house, put it up for sale, and sent one of several moving trucks ahead of her to Constantinople where her Ex would receive it and get one of the empty houses set up for her in Amystriss. A part of her wished that Dustin would come with, but knew that his place was with his son.

She informed everyone of what happened in Amystriss since the family had left. Apparently the whole town's charter and security system had been reworked entirely to protect from the shadow government, and future 'invasions'. Ellen helped set up a few live web-cam chats with the town council and their old friends, proving that the Johnson's are indeed alive and well. Henry reluctantly informed them that they were planning to move to another state. Their neighbor, Maggie, had returned from her vacation to quite a mess, but quickly forgave the boys and was grateful to hear that everyone was ok in the end. The search teams were called back from all over the region. Their old safe house was only partially saved from the fire that Jack and Henry set (they said the fire was set by the 'bad guys' to avoid getting in even more trouble with the law). The town council would soon plan on using it for training missions for their fire department recruits, rebuilding parts of the secluded house and setting it on fire again. Jack thought it was hilarious and Ed had to agree. He gave Jack the new nickname; Bic-flicker, while Ed was called Sparky for his intense lightning display. None dared to call Nina anything but her proper name.

Meanwhile, their family house that was imploded down to the foundation by the Center's troops, will be rebuilt again but a little sturdier then before and will include a proper back door and patio. Henry's old construction crew and Janet's coworkers helped raise some money for the Johnson's new life, but wished that they'd return home. The town wasn't given many details, but they knew that Janet and Edward had been hospitalized from injuries incurred in the past week. Henry insisted that the Amystrians not let on to anyone outside of Amystriss of the family's whereabouts and condition to keep everyone involved safe. Cards and letters were also gathered by Ellen's ex-husband and relayed to them at the hospital.

"Hey Ed, here's some more for you from the 4th graders. I put it on the pile over there." Jack said holding a wad of letters in his hands.

"Wow. I can't believe... there's so many people out there that liked us."

"Of course they did. You're a great guy. Just remember to send Thank-you cards back to all these people."

"Yes, I will. If I wasn't shy I'd set up a re-meet and greet with everyone." Ed said looking at the sheer volume of cards. "A reunion might be faster then writing."

"Here's one... oh. I think it's for you, Dustin." Henry showed the envelope to him. Dustin could not read anything clearly, so Henry opened it and read it aloud for the dog. "Oh, it looks... umm...‘To whom it may concern. The Last Will and Testament for Mr. Hamilton." Henry said and patted Dustin on the back for moral support. Dustin wasn't prepared to hear his Will being spoken so soon, especially not while he was still alive. He whined a little but accepted this fact days ago. Everyone else in this world thinks he's dead, and some nameless people have already gone into filling out the paperwork for his final preparations so he could be filed away as deceased.

"Well, I’m sorry to do this, Dusty. If you want me to stop I can..." Henry said apologetically.

Dustin nodded for him to go on, and sat down next to Henry looking at the thick off-white paper with numerous black, seemingly indecipherable, squiggles all over it.

"To whom it may concern, this is the Last Will and Testament for Dustin Rhoads Hamilton." Henry said trying to muster up an official voice.

"Dusty roads?" Edward and Jack laughed abruptly.

"Shh. I hereby bequeath my entire estate and property to Edward Johnson." Henry said and was quite shocked, he continued on with the list of belongings and legal bits, explaining what it meant to the kids.

"Ii foorgot abbout thaat." Dustin said glancing at the paper. He then thought that it was strange to forget something important like that in just a couple of years. When he had found out Ed's new name, he immediately set up his own Will to have it on there. The lawyers wouldn’t allow someone with a number for a name to inherit his property. Especially when that person wasn’t even on record as existing yet. Dustin had to wait for Ed to have a proper name and residence that could be recognized by the Will makers. He grinned at Ed and his tail thumped the ground. His house would not go to the state, but to someone that he loved.

"So uh, thanks Dustin... I don't really know what to say." Edward said settling down next to Henry and Dustin.

Dustin waved a paw at them and said, "Annythinng forr myy boyy. Ii juust wiish iit wass big ennough foor a full fammily."

Ellen was given a number of his advanced electronics and inventions for her to sell for a tidy sum. Saying he couldn't possibly use them anymore and that she would be most likely to know how to utilize them. He then mentioned privately to her to get a hold of Steve Hawkings and make him pay out the nose for Bessy Jr., even though it frequently would shoot sparks and catch fire, it was still a solid piece of technology, or, a really heavy paperweight. Ellen laughed and promised that the inventions would only be used for the forces of good and never evil.

"Oh Dad, here's another one for Dustin."

Henry took it, and read it to himself as it looked to be just more legal business.

"What?!" He squinted at the paper and reread the numbers and terms.

"What? What happened? What's wrong?"

"Dusty, did you know that you had a policy for Accidental Death and Dismemberment from some place called Biminy Incorporated?"

Dustin cocked his head.

"Apparently your family is entitled to just over $250,000 dollars under your policy."

"Ii donn't believve itt,... whaa? Wwho seet thaat uup?"

"Wait, Dad, that's Biminy. That's Albert's last name. He must have set it up for you back in..." Jack took the letter and looked at the date. "1998."

"Thaat's wheen Ii sttarted woorking therre."

"Well shit, that's good news, now we don't have to worry about renting a house, we can all just buy one." Jack said patting Dustin on the back. "Course you get the master suite and Jacuzzi."

Dustin laughed. "I'lll shaare thhe jacuuzzi."

"And hot tub." Edward said.

"And swimming pool." Nina added, "Whatever those are, I saw them on TV. I want to try one out." She smiled.

Jack and Ed exchanged looks and Edward said, "We'll get 2, a shallow one and a diving one."

"Stock up on toddler floaties." Jack nudged Edward and soon a tousle began. It ended abruptly with Nina kicking both of their asses and placing a foot on top of the mangled heap in triumph.

"I think I like this family." She said conclusively.

That afternoon, a mysterious clay pot with lovely white flowers growing in it, was sent to their room with a note on the side. Edward read it aloud to the others in the room. "Click her heels and say, There's no place like home." He said and shrugged. They all looked at each other, and guessed it was from a really big friend. No one could hide their excitement as they huddled around Janet's bed.

Henry gently picked up her feet and clicked them, while the rest said the words and waited expectantly, no one could breath and hearts raced as they waited. Nothing happened.

Completely deflated, Edward cursed and dropped the card, only to notice something on the back side of it. He knelt down and read the hastily written chicken scratches, " 'You watch too many movies, Edward. Good luck and enjoy the flowers'." He said aloud and looked at the long, white trumpet shaped petals. "Lilies?"

Just then Janet coughed softly and mumbled a bit. All of them dashed to her bedside pillow as she stirred just a little.

"Where..." She coughed again and began to sit up, "Where am I?"

"MOM!"

 

 


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Man, this cat's journal is going to take awhile...

Chapter 29 July 2010 old beginnings and new endings

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

July 11th 2010

Starting date for my new digitalized journal thing, Jack says it's better then paper. Over a month has past since my last written journal entry and I think I like this computer more then pen and ink. A lot faster to write with. Well, we have been living at Dustin's house for a couple of weeks now and last week we got a package delivered to the house. It was _huge_. Inside, were several boxes labeled; L5, whatever that means, and each one of them had a stack of my old journals inside. There was a note on the first box that read, 'Took awhile to get through them all, but glad I did. I think you'll agree that it was definitely time well spent on both our parts. Thanks for the good read. Don't ever get down on yourself for the recent troubles, because it was your good nature and spirit that ultimately saved and changed all of our lives for the better. At least mine, and I thank you for it.'

I think everyone here knows who sent it and I wish I knew where to send the thank you. But in all honesty, I'm glad I couldn't find them, everyone dealing with the Center just vanished without a trace. The only things that prove they ever existed is Nina and me, and I think Mr. Biminy kept the other animals. So that means we wont be seeing them anytime soon, but at least they're alive and will be kept safe.

Nina and I are planning on setting up a kind of memorial to our 14 brothers and sisters and all of the others from the Center. It's in a special spot in the meadow that's next to our new house being built. Every day I plan on going out there and spending time talking to them. I know that they can hear me up there, so I want to keep them up to date.

Dustin hasn't been doing too well lately, but says he's at peace with that. He's not totally gone, but we have noticed that Dan has been around a lot more lately. I will miss him terribly, as these last few weeks have been such a joy. I know he will find the same peace that I felt when I died. Truth be told, it was a tough decision to leave that wonderful place and even though I definitely don't want him to leave us, I just know he will be in good hands.

Ellen and Jen are planning on visiting us once we get our new house all set up, we have a pretty good start, thanks to Ellen. She saved a whole lot of things from our old house before they were burned at Site B. They live in Amystriss and are in constant contact with us, as are all of our old friends from the town. Jen and I web-cam every single day and I can't wait for her to come over so we can have another first kiss. This time will rock.

I'm finally allowed to learn how to drive now that Mom and Dad know that I won't just change shape in the middle of the freeway. I'm also able to pass for a 16 year old but I have only just turned 15! I'm now as old as my old name. It seems like Nina and I have slowed down our aging, so I guess Jack was right, it was our cat side that sped things up, because they only live to be 25 years old, and humans can live up to be 100. I didn't dwell on that matter much, getting old before my time and all that. Mostly because I couldn't help it, and a part of me was glad I could catch up to Jack's age. I dunno. This just means that Nina and I will be around for a while longer so of course that makes me very happy! It's odd, I know I'm almost 5 and a half years old but I don't feel that young. I guess if I were anyone else I'd just be starting preschool instead of entering the driver's-ed program at our new high school.

It's a private school called Our Lady of Glory Academy, or OLGA for short. Nina is spending a year at our house under Mom's tutelage to get her way up to speed with all of the grade school stuff they didn't teach her at the Center. Mom says that she loves having another girl around the house to do girly things with, like shopping and makeup and all that crap. I'm glad Nina is coping pretty well with us. She's been through a lot and Mom says that Jack and I have been a great influence on her.

When I first joined the family, I was lucky that I didn't remember where I had come from. Nina, unfortunately, has nightmares sometimes and has some issues with having so much free time on her hands. We try to keep her busy but she really gets stuff done fast! Because of that, she's been assigned with building a green house in the backyard. Later she says she wants to grow all kinds of plants in it, starting with the seeds from aunt Ana's blue Anthuriums and the lilies that her dad sent to our hospital room.

One thing though, even though we don't look older, both Nina and I have grown several inches in just a month! I'm now 5 ft 2 and she's 5 ft 5, so I'm catching up to her! Jack has also grown a solid inch since the last time we measured, so it'll take some time to catch up to him.

He's turning into a freakin giant, going around smashing Tokyo!

Just kitten, meow ;)

At least she and I are able to put on some healthy weight now that we don’t transform anymore. And because of that, we are slowly getting some much needed fat on our bones so we can float when we swim. I never saw a girl so happy to get bigger! Some days we just stay in the downtown pool all day long, just goofing around. Dad told me that Dustin always wanted to sail so he says he’s thinking of saving up for a boat and letting us pick out the name. Nina voted for ‘Fan Sea’ as in fancy. Jack went further with the pun and voted for ‘The Idio-sea’, Mom picked ‘Bankrupt-sea’ and everyone laughed when I chose to call it the ‘Luna Sea’. Dustin just said it's always been a big ‘Fanta-sea’ to go sailing with the lot of us. Still, I can't wait to swim in the ocean!

Dad says that we should all adopt new names to help us stay under the radar. So in public, at least for a little while, we will no longer be the Johnson’s but the Johansson’s. Janet will be ‘Jeanette’, Henry changed to ‘Harry’, and he had us boys watch the Blues Brothers to get our vote for ‘Jake and Elwood’. Nina wanted to choose her own and said she once saw a label on a box that had a checkmark through it, it looked like it said, ‘Madelin Theusa’. Which had actually read, 'Made in the USA'. Dustin and Dan will just be ‘Dusty Dan’ to keep it simple, no use renaming Dan again!

Oh right, I almost forgot, Jack and Nina are now dating, I give it a year. He loses nearly every argument but says he doesn't mind at all. I have noticed that the few occasions he did win an argument, it coincides suspiciously with the time when there are fewer magnets on the refrigerator.

Sneaky buggar!

He's also taken to wearing a white shirt with big bold black letters that say DECOY on the front, which is funny because the shirt is meant to be a joke but it actually does make the wearer a decoy. People stare at him and not his suspicious looking cat eyed, pointy eared, girlfriend with the short temper. Sometimes she wears the shirt with her tail purposefully out and swinging and people _refuse_ to look. Humans are so weird like that!

So far life has been really good this past month overall. But I don't want to jinx it by saying it's almost perfect, because you never know what's going to happen next.

I think I'm getting way ahead of myself. Let me start off and tell you what has happened since the last entry. There has been _a lot_ of things that's for sure.

I've asked everyone to write down or tell me what they did and what happened, so it's a pretty complete record of events. Because, I mean, this isn't just my story, and it wouldn't make any sense at all from just one person's side. Some of it we just had to guess what happened when none of us were there.

I think I'll just begin where I left off. It's a good thing I have perfect memory skills! Right, shut it, hahaha, :) Anyways... here we go.

 

 

May 18th 2010 Tuesday

The weather was nice but cloudy and Jack wore his 'band' t-shirt and plethora pocketed shorts again that day. Mom drove us to school because we were running late and I remember Dad had to work at the construction site all day. Then the lunch bell rang and we had to get to class.

 

 

Man, this cat's journal is going to take awhile...

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's it! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I had creating it. These boys have been in my head for a decade now, and I had been working on a sequel of sorts that isn't finished or edited at all. It is mostly a collection of ideas with no real plot or ending.   
> It is unique in that I had written another novel that is a sort of prequel to this story, but has only one character in all three that helps tie it together. It's called, The Fake Cities and is a story about two scientist brothers that go too far with their miniaturization 'hobby'. I need to rewrite the whole story now that I had read more and researched the science behind it a bit better. It was a pet project of mine, and though my family loves it the way it is, I know I can tighten it up and give better details to the scenes. The sequel that is not finished ties these two stories together in a knot. Ed's world as well as the Tubris brothers crash into a melee of situations that defy conventional description.   
> I love it. ;)   
> Anywho - I would love to hear from you if you enjoyed this story and would like to see more! Have a great one!  
> PS, If you want to buy a paperback or hardcover copy of this book, message me!


	30. Authors note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Authors note when it was published.  
> Slightly Edited because privacy reasons.

Author's note:

 

Elaborate reasoning's for mind numbing nothings!

 

Here is my (rather long) side of this story! The events and ideas that popped up that helped shape the plot and characters into this nice great big bug smashing book. Or perhaps you can press flowers between its numerous pages to help keep them preserved. Maybe hide some super secret slip of paper in its binding? I think my copy will just to be pointed at occasionally to prove that I could indeed finish a project in my lifetime despite the overwhelming evidence that I'm a lazy such-and-so. Lies, lies and more lies, but really, it's all true.

(Get on with it!)

This is some of the back-story that was crucial in helping the storyline flourish and eventually wind it down to the finale. I had originally intended 200 pages, regular book size as my goal, and no one is more shocked then I to see that it's over double that. But, of course, once I got started, ideas just kept coming, begging for a spot in it.

It all started when I had a vivid dream in December 2007 that intrigued me. When I woke up, it was simply such a weird and thought provoking idea that I knew I just had to write down. From that morning until about 3:30 when I left for work, I had written down as much as I could remember, as well as notes and ideas to add later, if and when I decided to go further. Eventually the 1st edition became a massive tome well over 2 years later. (And now, 2 additional years of editing later, the technical details of writing are more or less fixed. My apologies to the people that own the 1st edition, for the numerous punctuation errors! I hope this version is easier on the eyes, as well as being more descriptive and a little easier to follow.)

The biggest problem in transcribing any dream, is not to be seen as a mindless idiot. The original draft was basically what I saw or did in my dream, but I decided to change the main character, as I was the cat. Finding it much easier to write for a boy because it seems like I know men much better then other women. Anyway, the dream jumped from place to place and is roughly the first chapter of the book but of course modified to fit a fairly coherent storyline. We all know that dreams rarely make sense once we wake up, so that's why it was difficult in creating the world and circumstances around the events to make the dream feasible, ie;

'Where could a cat be able to go to school, without being out of place?'

'Why did the cat turn into a human while on the eaves of the school?'

'Why were there eagles in the shed that that child fell through?'

I had no idea how to explain that last one, and figured that I'd just put it in there and eventually think of a reason behind it. In later chapters I altered it to become the single event that triggered everything that followed. Even though it takes some time to see it as such, as it's very short and easily overlooked, it really is the lynch pin that set the current events in motion.

In my dream, I climbed up the eaves as a cat and when I got to the top, chasing that gray cloud, some part of my brain clicked on and said rationally, "You cant climb that, you are a person, you're too heavy." So that's when I turned human and fell off the side of the school and through the roof of a mysterious shed and disrupted a nest of eagles.

Later in the dream, I went to class and was convinced that there were evil people out to get me so I vividly remember running into the back office and hiding while two large men were arguing at the classroom door. I can't recall how I got from one place to the other, but took these pieces and put together the first chapter. The entire rest of the book is trying to make it make sense. I recommend that more people write down their crazy dreams and try to make them work in a good narrative story, because many people throughout history admit that their greatest ideas came when their mind was free to wander as it pleased.

It was a good start to something. The Amystriss school is loosely based on my old 5 story 1st-8th grade school with a separate cafeteria underneath our church. In the book, the church became city hall, and the school, being so massive in such a small town, turned into a joke so I could keep the events in the dream.

Later, when I had gotten a few chapters under my belt, I had dozed in bed, waiting for the alarm to go off and to get ready for another day on the job. I dreamt what would much later become the climatic moment at the desert garages in the middle of Chapter 25. At the time, I had absolutely no idea how the story would get there or what would happen after that moment, but I am grateful for that short daydream because it gave me a definitive ending, something to shoot towards and plan out for. That part was solid and basically unchanged for a long time. Eventually I knew I had to include one important character that seemed to come out of nowhere early on in the original draft. 'Dustin' started off very vague but he became one of my favorites over time. (In all honesty, I just wanted a talking dog in the book somewhere.)

Working backwards and forwards really helped me think about the logistics of what any given character would do from one moment to another. Thought process or circumstance would shape a personality just enough to push them in the right direction.

I jotted down the main outline of the book and wrote at the bottom for myself: "Feel free to change anything - I wrote this very late and I can't think straight. Love from 1:46 am March 19 2009."

For most of 2008 I admit I rarely peeked in on the story (it was then called 'catman nananana' like the old Batman theme song – I have an odd sense of humor) I probably would have dropped it altogether. I can't clearly tell you why I continued besides the following pseudo facts;

I was bored. (Most likely)

I was inspired. (What people love to hear)

I was curious. (Which is the ultimate reason.)

I love just about every story dealing with talking animals. Especially stories from the animal's point of view, like White Fang, and Fluke. I enjoyed putting myself in all of their shoes and trying to figure out what to do or say in any given situation.

I wanted to write something too about shape-shifters, and how they don't have to become suddenly evil just because they've changed shape. In nearly every single movie I'd seen out there about werewolves, vampires, and other monsters, as soon as they become an animal they just have to go on a killing spree for no good reason. I think it's an unoriginal plot devise, but that's not to say I don't love some of those movies. I know, I'm a hypocrite. There just aren't many shows or books or movies out there with amiable, convincing anthropomorphic beings. They say we gotta deal with the card we're dealt right?

I disagree. I wanted to read a book about a nice shape-shifter. A person that is normal in all other respects, but just happens to shape-shift. I didn't find one, so I decided that I should do it myself. And with my deplorable memory I can re-read it and enjoy it again and again! :)

My Dad, has helped me go on when my lazy side wanted to take over. I do like to keep a few projects going at any given moment, but I rarely finish any of them completely. (I am currently writing a sequel involving characters from my 2nd book as well as this one. My 2nd book is called, 'The Fake Cities' and is a kind of prequel to Cat's Journal in dealing with the origin of the Center's technology. But, it is its own story, and can be read out of chronological order or just by itself. While this story is about a shape shifter, 'The Fake Cities' deals mainly with two inventors, brothers, that create a miniaturized society, populated by convincing cyborgs and kidnapped humans that trespassed on their property. At first they use the living miniature humans to teach the robots how to become more human-like, but an argument between the brothers sets a disaster in motion. I don't want to ruin the story, so I'm sorry I stink at summing it up! The 3rd book will have shape shifters and miniaturization in it, but it probably isn't what you're expecting. It is tentatively called, 'The Cat's Diary'.

While I was writing Cat's Journal, I was listening to Dad tell me about what he thinks will go on later in this story, and how much he felt for the characters, which really got my keyboard hopping. At several points and events, his predictions actually changed my storyline to follow along with them, because they were better then what I had planned. I also blame him for my voracious and verbose vocabulary, even though I still stink at spelling the enigmatic words. (Spell-check!) Some great ideas and inspiration come from every source, usually random events or things I'd hear at work. I'd like to thank my computers' built in dictionary and thesaurus as well, for aiding me with some of my writer's blocks. (Honestly speaking, I screwed up so many words that the spell check would often break down and I'd have to restart the whole program to continue!)

I want most to send my stories out there for all of those people that want weird tales like this one, about a confused kid and his mission to save his new family.

The main character, Edward, is more or less based on my 5 year old cat Danny. He is a very large, fluffy, black and gray striped cat with nothing but love for everyone. Once he gets to know you, he will never leave your side. (Right now, in fact, he is laying on my bed next to me, occasionally peeking to see if I'm done yet with all the typing so we can go play.) Danny was found outside of my workplace one chilly night in August of 07. I just barely heard his pathetic kitten 'mew' in the shrubberies as I passed by them. I spent just over an hour trying to rescue his scared butt and he thanked me by biting me in each index finger. He, of course, didn't know I was trying to save him from being run over because there are 2 busy intersections close to my work. Even though he was scared the first night, the next day he was nothing but purrs and play. He was malnourished and scrawny for his age of about 7 weeks and after a few months he had gotten to be a huge cuddle bucket.

My other cat, Kiki, who is 9 years old, is the basis for the character of Nina except for the color of her coat. Kiki looks just like a ripe pumpkin. Same colors, and striped like a regular tabby just like Danny. Kiki is only loving to people that she knows and sees on a regular basis, and is basically aloof and crabby to everyone else, downright mean if they try to pet her without her permission. She's not thrilled that Danny is here and at best, tolerates his presence. But when he cries when he's scared, you better believe she will be right there to make sure he is alright, protecting him from harm.

I have tried to give all of the characters in this book the limelight in one way or another and I apologize if I fell flat on giving more depth to them. After all, it's just my own brain I have to call from and I tell ya, it's slim-pickings!

Dad has pointed out that this story is all me, and my odd sense of humor, and I admit I liked to put in hundreds of references to things I like. I think only my dad can pick them all out, but even then...

The best compliment I have gotten so far about the book is when he described it as, "A tapestry that is pieced together one thread at a time, you don't know what the whole thing will look like until it is completed." - John 

Dad, is finally going to publish his short stories! They are amazing, I guarantee you will love them and think about them for a long time after-wards.

I would like to say a big _Thank you_ to everyone that has inspired me to complete this monster. All of you who were patient with me when I'd babble on for years about the characters or storyline, you've been the best and I am thrilled that it is now here! I will release a hardcover copy that will include a bunch of pictures, back story, unused ideas and story lines, the in-depth time line for all the events, maps and diagrams of the more elaborate scenes to help visualize the events. So look for it soon!

I hope you enjoy my stories, and that they stay riveting to the bitter end, and I am sorry that the beginning is so slow to start. I think I'll have yet another go at it once I become an ineffable good writer. Or not. Depends on what's on TV.

 

Thank you :)

 

Wolfie180g

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my very first finished novel, I'll upload a chapter at a time. It is a finished story and I had made a sequel of sorts for it but it is not finished. Please comment or kudos! It took me six years to write and make it perfect. I started it in 2007 and the character Edward is based on my cat Danny who is not a shapeshifter, (as far as I know) but he is large black and gray striped and I saved him from the streets when he was a kitten in "07. This story came about from a dream I had that turned into the first two chapters or so, only I was the cat that climbed up the school and fell into a shed with eagles. The dream ended soon after the confrontation in the classroom. It's been ten years so I obviously don't remember the dream too well, but most of my stories back then came about from dreams. The entire rest of the book was making the dream/ first chapters make sense! For instance, why were there stuck up eagles? What's that floaty cloud? Why did the cat change shape? Who's that guy? What kind of mess are they getting into? Escape from? etc etc etc.  
> So yeah, I hope you like it! If anyone wants to buy it, feel free to message me please :)  
> Have a good one!


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